Life in Binary
by Athaeth
Summary: The chance to go to another galaxy is just too tempting for the Wizard Saviour. At least he can't say his life is dull. Not when he is living on a mythical flying city and being chased by life-sucking aliens. Just another day in the life of Harry.No slash
1. Chapter 1

"Hey Harry, are you coming to lunch? It's Friday and you know what that means!"

Harry James Potter turned his bright emerald gaze to the man stood in the doorway of his office and smiled. Harry had only been here for six months but the team welcomed him and his input to their work. They were fun to be around and tried hard to make him a part of the team that had been comfortably established for years before he got here.

"Yeah yeah, I know. Burger Friday." Harry rolled his eyes slightly.

"Hey, don't be like that now." Mark Jeffs, Harry's boss, had seen the eye roll. "The place we chose does a mean veggie burger you know. We made sure, ever since you told us you were a vegetarian."

Harry closed all the work on the multiple computers in the room and locked them all. "I know and I'm really grateful to all the guys for doing that for me. I know that you are all staunch carnivores."

As they left the office and greeted the rest of the team to go to lunch, Harry couldn't help but think back over the years and remember how he got to this point in his life. The War in the wizarding world officially started a week and a half after Sirius fell through the Veil. Voldemort decided to get the 'revolution' going with a bang, and had blown up Kingscross station. It only got bloodier and more violent from there. Harry and his side of the War began to train themselves and soon found that they had to fight guerrilla style as Voldemort gained more and more power. The War finally ended just after Harry turned 17, with Voldemort attacking one of the last strongholds the light side had – Hogwarts.

Many people had died that day. Everyone that Harry had called a friend was dead and he was once again alone in the world. The devastation of the scene was horrific as Harry looked around, Voldemort's dead body at his feet. It didn't take long for the Muggle government to turn up and even less time for England's magical allies to turn up and try to smooth things over. Only hours later, as Harry was being treated for his injuries in a local Muggle hospital, the government had covered it all up (as they had done with the many attacks by Voldemort over the last two years) and was calling it a tragic attack by an extreme religious group. Harry had found a grim amusement in that at the time – it was so close to the truth that they weren't really lying anyway.

After Harry had been released from hospital, he realised that he had no idea what to so with himself. He didn't need to worry about money because the Potter family were ridiculously rich, and he didn't have anyone left to worry about. He was lost for a few days whilst he tried to decide what to do when he saw the advertisement.

About a year before, for his 16th birthday, Hermione had bought Harry a laptop. He was confused at first, thinking that he wouldn't be able to use it because magic and technology didn't go well together. Hermione had huffed and explained how that was old Muggle technology and that they were working in digital now, so the magic wouldn't interfere like it used to. A few weeks later and Harry was using the simple laptop like a pro.

Harry had always been smart but his true genius was patterns. Harry could decipher and crack codes and patterns faster than the time it took most people to decide where they should begin. He had never been allowed by the Dursleys to be anything but a low average and that habit had stuck when he was at Hogwarts. But with Hermione's encouragement and the fact that it took his mind off the War for an hour or two, he regained his love of learning that had been beaten out of him at age four by his Uncle. Together, Harry and Hermione learnt all manners of subjects together - Harry working on anything pattern based like maths, languages and computers and Hermione working on charms, science and transfiguration.

It was Harry's genius with patterns and computers that made him answer the advertisement on the internet. It was a worldwide competition to discover the best computer hacker, with the prize being a job offer at the end. Harry had entered on a whim and soon found himself immersed in IQ tests, computing tests and every other test known to mankind. It had been a month of stress and hard work until the final and his victory, but Harry enjoyed and relished the challenge. The job at the end was of little consequence to Harry – he had no need of the good wage they offered – but he needed something to do in his life. So, when he won the contest, he accepted the job. That was how he ended up working at the Cybercrimes Prevention and Protection department of the Pentagon in the USA.

Lunch went well and they were all back in their offices that afternoon to finish up their work for the weekend and to leave the weekly report for the weekend staff. Harry had just finished filing his last and rather long report on the cyber attack that he had managed to prevent a few weeks before, when Mark wandered back into his office, not even bothering to knock. No one bothered knocking in the department – most people left their office door open anyway, and banter passed between the computer techs and analysts all day long.

"What can I do for you now Mark? I only saw you ten minutes ago." Harry didn't even bother looking up from his computers, his fingers darting across the keyboard.

"There are some people waiting for you in Mr Saunder's office."

Harry's hands stilled and he finally looked up. "Really? Why don't they just come down here?"

Mark shrugged. "I don't know. They are from the air force - they are wearing dress blues and everything."

"Ok. Just give me a minute." Harry once again shut all the work on his machines and locked them before trailing after Mark to the Head of Department's office. Harry took a deep breath, straightened his shirt and composed a neutral look on his face. He sharply knocked on the door and entered immediately after.

Harry saw Saunder sat behind his desk, eyeing the two figures in front of him with weariness and curiosity. Saunder had no idea why they were here, asking to see a specific tech in his department. It wasn't unusual for top brass from all over the armed forces and US government to stop in for something of a sensitive nature, but these guys had merely said 'classified' when he enquired.

"Ah, Mr Potter. There you are." Harry nodded to Saunder and watched as the two officers rose from their seats and turned to him. Harry saw a number of medals on both of their dress jackets, but had no idea what they meant or what they were given for. Muggle awards in the armed forces wasn't something that held much interest for him, so it was something he never bothered to learn about.

"Mr Potter, it is a pleasure to meet you." Harry gave the men another look over, evaluating them carefully. He quickly shook himself out of it before they noticed. A year and a half of intense training and war had ingrained habits in him that were hard to stop. It had been trained into him to look around quickly and efficiently and to remember as many details about his environment and people around him as possible. Still, it never hurt to be curious and cautious.

Before either man could offer a hand to him, Harry stiffened his back and gave them a firm nod, an almost bow of the head. Another habit that had become ingrained in Harry from wartime. In the magical world, there was no touch unless absolutely necessary between strangers and acquaintances. It was proper to bow to one another, keeping a respectful distance. It was something that was taught to them as teenagers at Hogwarts, to prepare them for adult life in the Magical World where a mistake in behaviour couldn't be shrugged off as a child's mistake. The etiquette was the same across the magical community of the world, from the oldest settlements in England and spread across Europe. The War had spread through the entire magical community, and Harry had to learn a universal etiquette for when dealing with many foreign allies.

Glad that neither of the men tried to shake his hand, Harry gave them a politely enquiring smile. "The pleasure is all mine, I'm sure."

The officer in charge gave a smile in return and gestured that they should all sit down. Harry took a seat in the leather armchair and allowed the two officers to sit on the couch opposite him, on the other side of the coffee table. Mr Saunder rose from his chair behind his desk.

"Well, I will leave you to your discussion."

Harry remained politely perched on his chair and heard the door click quietly behind him as the Department Head left swiftly. He turned his gaze down to the table and saw that someone (Saunder's secretary most likely) had set a coffee tray down and that the two officers had already served themselves cups before Harry had got to the office. Harry ignored the black, steaming beverage and helped himself to a glass of water instead. He avoided coffee, disliking the strong and bitter taste. Give him a good cup of tea any day.

"Mr Potter, we have been sent to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime on a project by the Air Force."

"Ok." Harry took a slow sip of his drink and raised an eyebrow. "And what opportunity would that be?"

"The project is classified at the highest level and you are required to attend extensive evaluation tests. You were headhunted along with others that represent the best and brightest that dozens of nations have to offer."

Harry felt his other eyebrow rise to meet the first one in surprise. He was really curious as to what kind of classified project that the US Air Force was running that would require and allow talent from so many countries. "So, you can't tell me anything about it?"

The officer in charge shook his head. "I'm afraid not Sir. I've only been instructed to tell you that the evaluations will take place within the next few days at a base in Colorado Springs. If chosen, you will sign the nondisclosure papers and be informed about the project. I must also stress how it is a completely voluntary and at stage of the selection process you can leave any time you desire."

Harry sat back and looked away from the two officers opposite him, deep in thought. The truth was that Harry was intrigued and a part of him was dying for some adventure. He enjoyed his job, but the challenge had gone once he had begun to settle into his job. After so long in the magical world and years in a constant state of civil war, he needed something to do with himself. And he could leave this project if it wasn't to his liking. He didn't need the job or a wage.

"Ok." Harry turned back to the two men, his gaze resolute and his voice firm. "I'm in for now."

* * *

><p>A huge frigging mountain. He was deep inside a big ass mountain. Harry looked around at the dull grey walls surrounding him in fascination. He had spent some time in other bunkers during the war, but they had all been magical, with fake windows and nice scenery. This room was boring, with only a door on one wall and a round table surrounded by chairs.<p>

The chairs were occupied by other people and Harry looked around as he was shown inside and took the only remaining seat available, as he was the last to arrive. They had been left alone for ten minutes so far and no one had spoken a word, giving Harry time to observe the others. There were two women and three men in the room with Harry and the youngest looked at least thirty, making Harry very much visibly the youngest in the room.

"So," The women who spoke was petite and thin and was looking around the room nervously, tucking a lock of dirty blonde hair behind her ear. "Where is everyone from?"

A man across from the woman snorted and looked at her in disdain. "That is the best you can come up with after ten whole minutes thinking time?" The woman looked away nervously, a pink flush on her cheeks. The guy gave a put-upon sounding sigh. "Well, if you all must know, I'm Dr. Daniel Masters, PhD. I'm a lecturer of quantum computing at MIT. You?"

"Erm, I'm Dr. Ann Craig and I'm a forensic computer technician for a private security company." The woman refused to look at anyone and tucked another strand behind her ear.

Harry only half paid attention to the others' names and job titles until it finally got around to him. "I'm Harry." He gave them all a nod and a friendly smile. He saw the sneer on Masters' face as he gave only his first name and saw him looking him up and down. Where all the others were wearing work and business clothes, Harry had decided on jeans and a t-shirt. He may wear suits to his day job, but he wasn't going to bother for some top secret job interview that he wasn't even sure he wanted.

"Are you sure you're in the right room kid?" Masters' gave an unfriendly smile. "Because you look like some high school student who has just wandered into a top secret military base by accident."

Harry sat back in his chair and gave the man a cold, unfazed look. Harry didn't care what this utter tosser thought of him. Harry knew he was good at his job and was confident in his abilities. He had met a few people like this in the past: just because he didn't have a piece of paper from some university to say he was good at something, people seemed to think that he couldn't do his job.

"I actually work at the Cybercrimes Prevention and Protection department of the Pentagon. I beat over two thousand people for my job. So, yeah, I'm just Harry." Harry gave the man a cold grin and was saved from the startled reply by an officer entering and asking them to follow him. Harry shoved his backpack over his shoulder and casually followed the man out of the room and down endless corridors.

They went down a couple of floors in the elevator (at least, Harry thought it was down but he wasn't sure. They were underground and he had no way of judging because he couldn't see the panel indicating the floor) and were shown down another corridor that looked exactly like all the others he had walked down. This time though, they were each show into individual rooms.

Harry was the last to be shown into the room at the very end of the corridor and he looked carefully around as he entered, the officer following him with his instructions. There was a work bench with various pieces of equipment scattered across it and a table right in the centre of the small room. Upon the table was a small and innocuous looking piece of equipment.

Harry wandered closer to the strange piece of technology and leaned closer. It was made of metal, and round in shape. There were symbols decorating its sides. Harry had never come across anything like it before.

"You are to determine as much as you can about this piece of equipment in two hours. It has been tested already and isn't dangerous, so you needn't worry. A scientist will be come back in a few hours to see how far you have got."

Harry absently thanked the officer as he left the room, silently closing the door behind himself. Harry walked around the object again, marvelling at it. Harry had to admit he was excited. He loved a challenge. Determination running through him, he pulled his backpack off and pulled out his tablet PC.

Harry was so engrossed in his work, his tablet clutched in one hand and his other hand buried among the delicate crystals that made up the inside of the device, that he almost missed the people entering the room through the door behind him. But he had survived a war where he was one of the prime targets, so as soon as he sensed that he wasn't alone he carefully pulled his hands out of the device and pulled out his earphones.

He set down his tablet down and turned to great the people that had entered. It was a woman and a man, and Harry felt himself automatically looking them over and memorising the most distinguishing features of them both. The woman was tall, with short brown hair and warm eyes. The man was slightly shorter, with light brown hair that was just starting to thin and had the most intense blue gaze Harry had ever seen that shone with intelligence. Harry had found during the War that the most individual part of a person was their eyes and you could tell a lot about what a person was thinking, feeling and even what they may be about to do from their gaze. The gaze flicked between Harry and the device, an incredulous look plastered across his face.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Weir and this is Dr. McKay. I'm in charge of the project and Rodney is the Head of Science and Research." Harry gave them both a smile and inclined his head at both in turn. Rodney had wandered closer to the device and was gazing at it in surprise.

"I must say that we have been impressed with all the other candidates so far, but none of them have gotten as far as you have."

"None of those morons thought to actually open the device up and see how it works on the inside." Rodney turned his searching gaze on Harry. "What have you managed to discover about the device then?"

Harry couldn't help but smile at the haughty man in front of him. He had a pompous air about him and virtually screamed 'arrogance', but Harry could see that he was all hot air. And just by looking the man in they eye and seeing the glint there and the way the woman was deferring to him and treating him with respect let Harry know that the man in front of him was very intelligent.

"Well," Harry wandered over to his tablet and picked it up. "I had to take apart some of the equipment on the bench and I kind of patched it together and MacGyvered a kind of connecter together so I could attach my tablet. Once I did that, I wrote a quick interface program."

"You did all that in two hours?" Harry could tell that Rodney was impressed, despite the grumpy look on his face.

Harry gave a nonchalant shrug. "Yeah. After that I found out that it is some kind of music box." Harry tapped a couple of buttons and a tune came out of the device. Another tap stopped the tune. "Once I knew what it was, it was easy to access the device's small database and find the stored music. The one I played is called 'Ode to the Stars'."

Weir started slightly. "You can read the language?"

Harry rubbed his neck slightly. He had never been under such intense gazes, even during his hacking competition. "Yeah. I'm good at patterns and codes. This was just like cracking another code."

Rodney gave him a really intense and evaluating gaze. "I like this one Elizabeth."

* * *

><p>Elizabeth sat at the briefing table at Stargate Command, folders scattered over the surface in front of her. She took a sip of coffee and continued to read the file in her hands. She had to admit, she was impressed. No matter how many people she had seen, this one person impressed her more than any of the others she was considering. Harry James Potter had certainly made his impression on her.<p>

He was only seventeen and a half and yet he outshone all the older candidates by miles. The others came with a pile of degrees, masters and doctorates, but none of them had even managed to get Rodney to acknowledge them as anything more than incompetant minions to be berated and shouted at. Harry had managed to get that acknowledgement and more. He had worked his way under Rodney's prickly exterior and actually seemed to like the grumpy Canadian, which was something Elizabeth hadn't seen in all the months she had been working with the standoffish scientist.

"He is impressive, despite not having any qualifications." Elizabeth mused, glancing at Rodney and watching as he devoured a donut and coffee. "He beat thousands of people in the FBI hacking contest and has stopped some of the worst cyber attacks in the six months he has been with them. And the initial testing they did on all the candidates in the first stages shows he is incredibly gifted with patterns – languages, math, computers – and that his IQ is over 180. He is a genius." Weir gave a small frown. "But he is only seventeen and that worries me. This mission is essentially one-way and has the potential to be dangerous."

Rodney swallowed his last gulp of coffee. "He is emancipated, so is legally an adult and can make the choice himself, and by the time we actually leave he will be eighteen. It is his birthday in two months." Rodney looked Elizabeth in the eye. "I am hard to impress, as you like to joke about all the time Elizabeth. This kid is the best I've ever seen and I want him as my Computer expert. I've never seen anyone have such an affinity with Ancient technology before. And," Rodney slid a piece of paper over to her, "the lab is done with his DNA sample. He has the ATA gene."

Elizabeth sighed, but nodded. "Ok, but I want to make sure he fully understands just how dangerous it will be."

* * *

><p>Harry continued working on his tablet, frowning when he tried to type one handed. He was trying to finish up a programme and eat cupcakes at the same time. He had been left in this room for just over two hours now and he was getting seriously bored. And he was running out of cupcakes. Harry hadn't seen any of the other job candidates yet and he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad sign.<p>

Harry was just finishing up his programme when the door opened and Rodney and Elizabeth walked in. Harry smiled at them and set his tablet aside. He saw Elizabeth look at the pile of cupcake wrappers and give a small smile and he quickly brushed any remaining crumbs off himself.

"Before we start, you will have to sign this nondisclosure agreement. It basically says that you can't talk to anyone what we will discuss because it is classified at the highest level and if you do you will be put into a federal prison."

Harry signed the agreement and silently slid it back to the smiling woman. "Talk away. I can't wait for some answers to explain all this cloak and dagger stuff."

"First of all, here is general description of your role and wage and some other stuff."

Harry looked quickly through the sheets of paper and felt his eyebrows rise. "That is an impressive wage that you offer, especially considering that this states that living arrangement will be provided. And," Harry paused and looked at them incredulously. "It states that I will be the only computer expert working on this project."

Rodney cleared his throat. "All of the scientists have knowledge of computers, obviously, but anything to do with new technology, like you worked on today, will be your job. You are the best I have seen and I want you as part of my department and team."

Harry swallowed and looked back at the papers in front of him. He was now utterly focused on finding out what this project was about. "How dangerous?"

"Excuse me?"

Harry met both Rodney's and Elizabeth's gaze. "To offer a wage like this, it must involve some danger. How much are we talking about here?"

"I won't lie to you." Elizabeth sighed. "It could be life threatening. We don't know. It could also be a one way trip for all of us."

Harry nodded, processing this information. Harry was no stranger to life threatening situations and this job was sounding more and more interesting. Elizabeth's voice broke into his thoughts. "It is completely voluntary and you came back out at any time right up to the moment of departure."

Harry took a few minutes to calm himself and really consider his options. He loved a challenge and danger had never put him before. And if they were recruiting the best and brightest that the world had to offer, then he was sure the project was something amazing. And he didn't really have anything tying him into the life he had managed to find himself in after the war ended. Harry looked up and grinned at the two anxious people in front of him.

"I'm absolutely in."

Elizabeth gave him a bright smile and Rodney nodded in satisfaction, a smug tone in his voice as he spoke next. "Do you believe in aliens Harry?"


	2. Chapter 2

Harry frowned and twisted his head to the side, moving closer to the glowing crystals. A line creased his forehead and he gave an exasperated sigh. This damn console was going to be the end of him. He was studying as much Ancient Technology as he could get his hands on, but he wasn't allowed to properly dissect and take this control console apart like he wanted to. It controlled the chair at the Ancient outpost in Antarctica, and Harry had been told it was Earth's primary and most important defensive weapon. Therefore, he was only allowed to look but not touch with the intent to take apart.

Harry shuffled further into the body of the console and squinted up at the glowing crystals. He had gotten rid of his glasses during the height of the civil war for survival's sake, but he had been figuring this console out for hours and his eyes ached from lack of rest. Harry, Rodney and the Czech scientist Radek (who Rodney never remembered the name of) had thought it prudent to assume that the main consoles of Atlantis would be similar to the one that interfaced with the control chair.

Harry had been confused at first when they explained about aliens and ring shaped devices that sent you unimaginable distances from the Earth, but he just mentally shrugged and got over it. If magic was real then so were aliens. And it wasn't as if Harry didn't know how magic worked. The Resistance (as Harry's side in the War was being called) had been working hard since the start of the War to combine Muggle understanding of science and nature with wizards' amazing abilities. They had made massive progress and the magical world was in the middle of a technological and social revolution that Harry was proud to be part of. He only had a basic understanding of scientific theory but that was enough that he now knew there was nothing 'mystical' about how his powers worked. Science could explain it all.

Harry wriggled forward and winced at the coldness of the floor. He had been lying on his back so he could access the lower compartment of the console and had buried himself quite far in. He sat up and stretched his back, grimacing as he worked out the kinks in his back and tried to get some feeling back in his ass, which had gone slightly numb due to the length of time under the console.

"Ah, Harry." Rodney had swaggered in and stopped in his tracks when he saw Harry emerging from the Ancient console. He resumed his pace over to the work bench set at the side of the room and booted up his laptop that was resting there. He turned back as Harry gracefully rose to his feet and hid another grimace. "I thought you would be here. You are determined to study that console as much as possible before we leave."

"Yeah, and it has been the constant pain in my ass since I signed up to this madcap adventure." Harry moved so he was leaning back against the console and gratefully accepted the bottle of water Rodney shoved in his direction, who was gleefully chugging what was probably his third cup of coffee of the morning. "I think I've got the idea and I've studied as much technology as I can, but I just wanna make sure." Harry cracked his bottle open and took a grateful glug. "Whilst you're here actually, I wanted to talk to you about my equipment budget."

Rodney frowned. "You know we have a finite space and weight allocation for everything we bring and the government controls how much money we have to spend. I may be able to increase your budget by a bit, but not a lot."

Harry laughed. "Gees Rodney. I'm not asking for more money. I was just questioning the insanely high budget that I've been given for my equipment. I thought there had been a mistake when you gave me the paperwork to fill in."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "We are going to a different galaxy with no way to contact Earth for an indeterminate length of time. We need to make sure we can survive, so dozens of countries are throwing money at this project. And seeing as you brought up the topic of paperwork, I will need the equipment requisition forms by the end of tomorrow."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, and Elizabeth wants my uniform request forms by the end of this morning."

"Time is short now that Jackson has found the address and we've been given the go ahead. We will get all the equipment by the end of the week and then next week will be spent putting it all together and then breaking it down so we can set it all up straight away on the other side of the Gate."

"So, we've finally finished recruiting then?" Harry eyed Rodney in curiosity.

Rodney gave a shrug. "Yeah, recruitment has ended. All the positions have been filled, the marines have been selected and Elizabeth has decided we have enough people with the ATA gene."

"Yeah, I heard her talking to Carson yesterday after General O'Neill left. She is very happy to have found that air force guy. She said he had a strong gene."

Rodney gave a put upon sigh. "It isn't that the gene is stronger. It is the same gene is all the carriers, but it is about mental control of the equipment. Major Sheppard just has better mental focus than some of the others. Well, except you of course. But Elizabeth was eager to have as many military people with a strong gene expression. She was worried about putting pressure on you due to your age. "

Harry averted his eyes from Rodney looking at him and gave a bashful nod. It was true that Harry had the strongest affinity of all the gene holders on the expedition. Harry knew from the Resistance research into the genetic makeup of wizards that they were just essentially genetically advanced humans. Thousands of years ago, right at the beginning of wizarding recorded history, their ancestors developed better mental capacity than the other Homo Sapiens. But thousands of years down the line, these abilities had advanced into the mental abilities of wizards. And they were limited to a small group due to the self-isolation of wizards. They rarely showed up in people outside the community in the form of Muggleborns due to a very precise combination of genetics being needed. Wizards had a higher mental capacity to other humans, but unlike the rest of the population of Earth, wizards hadn't developed beyond a certain century for such a long time in terms of social and technilogical development.

Harry cleared his throat. "Well, I'm glad we found that flyboy. I swear Carson was going to cry if you forced him into that chair one more time." Harry smirked and chuckled as Rodney muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'baby'. "I don't blame him. He did almost kill General O'Neill."

"What a shame that would have been." Rodney deadpanned dryly. "Don't forget your requisition forms. We do leave in two weeks."

* * *

><p>Harry was sauntering towards the canteen in the military base over the Ancient outpost in Antarctica. He was feeling much better now that he had had a couple of hours to nap and have a shower. Rodney had sent him off to sleep after Harry had yawned for the fourth time after he had buried himself in the console once again. He told him that he didn't want him to sneak back into the lab and he would meet him for lunch in the canteen.<p>

Harry walked down the corridors that led from his room on one end of the base, past the elevator that lead down to the outpost and right across the base to the recreational areas of the base. He was so engrossed in some ancient code that he was studying on his tablet balanced on his arm that he didn't even notice that the canteen was suspiciously quiet until he looked up and got a huge shock as multiple voices shouted 'Happy Birthday!'

Harry blinked in shock as people cheered at him. He lowered his tablet and looked dumbly around the room. A colourful banner had been put up across one wall, proclaiming everyone's joy that it was his birthday. Someone turned on some music and everyone clapped as Harry slowly began to smile.

"Happy Birthday, lad." Harry turned as the accented voice sounded right next to him. Carson, Rodney and Elizabeth had come over to him and were smiling widely, even the usually grumpy Canadian.

"I – " Harry had no idea what to say. He cleared his throat and took a shaky breath. "Thank you. Really. I've never had a party before."

Harry was busy looking around the room, so he didn't get to see their reactions. As the expedition leader, medical doctor and Harry's direct boss, they each were able to access different parts of his file. Elizabeth knew how to read between the lines and could gather that his childhood had not been perfect. Rodney had vaguely mentioned his parents one day and Harry had replied in a similar manner and Carson saw the vague explanations about how Harry had got some of his interesting scars and could honestly say that he just didn't believe some of them. Like that small scar above his left ear that his Aunt claimed had been when Harry had accidently whacked himself in the head with a frying pan when he was five.

"So." Harry's wide grin broke into their individual thoughts. "I think it is traditional for there to be cake." Harry gave them a wide-eyed puppy dog gaze that was offset by the devilish smirk gracing his lips.

Two hours later and most of the scientists and military personnel were back doing their research, training and shifts. Only Harry, Rodney and Carson were left at a table in the corner of the messy room. Harry finished off his third helping of birthday cake and happily set the fork down.

"God, two weeks." Carson's sudden comment sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet of the empty room.

Harry licked the last of the frosting from his lips and looked over at the slightly pale Scot. "Are you having second thoughts?"

Carson looked up but continued to grip his coffee as though it were a lifeline. "Everyday. But it is a chance in a lifetime. One that I'm not going to miss out on."

Harry nodded and emptied his glass of virgin punch. "I know. It is the most amazing thing. And it's not like I've got a lot keeping me on Earth." Harry saw the questioning looks the other men were sending him, but they never asked. That was probably why he felt the need to tell them. "My parents are dead and I'm an only child. My other relatives and I didn't exactly see eye to eye. And I've lost a lot of people in those terror attacks over the last two years. A lot of my school mates at my boarding school were caught in one of the last massacres. I'm lucky that I survived." The last sentence was barely whispered.

"Boarding school massacre?" Carson raised an eyebrow before a look of horror appeared on his face. "That exclusive private boarding school in Scotland! God, I didn't know. I'm sorry. I remember thinking at the time that I was glad to be in the US and that my Mother was living at the other end of Scotland."

Harry gave a slight shrug. He still couldn't look at either of them. He had never spoken to anyone outside his community and the Resistance about this. Carson saw his discomfort and changed the subject. "So, how do you like your presents lad?"

Harry allowed the subject to swamp his mind and the thoughts of blood and disaster to fade away. "They're really great! All of you guys have been really thoughtful."

Harry looked down at the small pile of items next to him and smiled. Rodney had got him a new tablet PC. It was top of the line and Rodney had customised it with better components and programmes. Harry had tightly gripped his shoulder without thinking about it and the normally grumpy Canadian had awkwardly patted his arm in response, his face slightly flushed in embarrassment and shock that Harry had intentially touched him when he was normally so proper. The marines that Harry worked out with in the base gym and practiced his mixed martial arts with (something he had learnt during the War to help get his frustrations out) had all banded together and gotten him a fan t-shirt for the TV show 'Wormhole xtreme', which had everyone at the party in stitches.

The scientists had gotten him an external hard drive full of as many films and songs as they could fit on. They explained that the present was half selfish because it was for when they left in two weeks, and they had decided that Harry should be in charge of organising the movies and equipment for a movie night once they were set up in the new galaxy. Harry had laughed and agreed, grateful that they all were so accepting of him into their little established community, even though he was years younger than them.

Elizabeth had given him a leather bound diary. It was elegant and well-made, the cover a deep emerald green. She told Harry that it matched his eyes and she thought it had been perfect when she saw it. Harry gave her a shy smile, touched that she and everyone else had put some much thought into choosing presents for him. Harry had already decided that the diary was going to be his personal item allowed on the expedition. His tablet and hard drive would be classed as his equipment and had already been accounted for. Harry was going to write in the diary in Magis, the international language that wizards had been using for centuries. Only another wizard would be able to pick up the diary and be able to read it straight away, and there were no other magical people on the expedition.

Carson's gift had been both thoughtful and practical. He had gotten Harry a new medical bracelet. The British Government had done well to cover up the wizarding terror attacks over the last two years and had also successfully explained several other unusual things. One such thing was Harry's strange blood work. Harry had been bitten by a magical snake and had been saved by a cure from an equally magical phoenix, which the British Government couldn't exactly put into Harry's medical history. As a result of the interaction between the two magical substances, the venom had been bound by the tears, but still remained in Harry's blood. It had become a part of him and multiplied with his blood. It acted as an additional part of his immune system, as it was highly toxic to anything living that entered his bloodstream. Harry had never really questioned why he never got sick after the bite, but now he knew. It was also deduced that if Harry's blood came in contact with another person's, then he had the chance of poisoning them with his 'toxic blood'.

All of this had been explained in some complex biological way by expert Resistance doctors and biologists and Carson seemed convinced and satisfied with the explanation that Harry had been bitten by a one of a kind hybrid snake and that an underlying genetic immune disease had caused the strange results. According to Harry's heavy and long medical file, they had simply decided to call it 'blood toxicity' for the sake of being short and simple.

The medical bracelet from Carson was amazing, in Harry's opinion. The main band was a black leather band that had been lined on the inside with Kevlar for toughness. It had a silver buckle doing it up and the plate explaining his illness was in tungsten carbide, a really strong scratch resistant metal. It had the medical symbol with the words 'Blood Toxicity' engraved on and a toxic symbol underneath. Harry knew that it was a custom piece and must have been expensive. But Carson had shrugged his protests off and had gently replaced Harry's old one on his right wrist.

"So, you guys have all your stuff ready to go yet?"

Harry looked up from his presents and gave Rodney a confused look. Seeing the look the younger man was sending him, Rodney gave a haughty sigh, causing Harry to grin and Carson to roll his eyes. "Elizabeth has sent all the uniforms to our rooms so we can pack them into our allocated transport boxes. She wants them done so they can be sent to the SGC. The uniforms, personal item and the few items of personal clothing that there is space for all have to fit into the box."

Harry gave a low whistle. "Wow, the military move fast. I only gave her my form this morning when I left the lab. They managed all that in a few hours?"

Rodney shrugged. "They are eager to get this expedition going. You have everything else sorted?"

Carson simply nodded, because he had been in Antarctica just as long as Rodney and already had everything sorted. Harry had only arrived there a month and half ago, a few weeks after he was recruited.

"Yeah, I've had all my stuff put into the Air Force maintained storage that they offered us, closed up my flat in DC and have said goodbye to all the guys I worked with at the Pentagon. They understood that I couldn't talk about what I was going to be doing. And I've only brought stuff here that I will be taking with me or will be sending to my storage after we leave. I'm good to go."

Rodney nodded as well. "I've just got to sort my cat out and get my flat locked up. I'm going to do that during the few days off we have after we get back to the SGC."

"Aye, and I'm going to go and visit my Mum. Say goodbye in person."

Harry didn't say anything as they discussed what they were going to do with the few days off that they were allowed before their ultimate departure. There was no way in hell Harry would visit his relatives like most of the other expedition members were going to do, and all his close friends were gone.

* * *

><p>It was the day before the departure of the Atlantis expedition and the SGC was bustling with activity and excitement. Harry had finished breaking down his equipment an hour ago - the computers, screens and other essential equipment all safely tucked away in military storage boxes, all labelled 'Computer Lab' in clean white stencilled lettering. The only piece of equipment not in the crates was Harry's personal tablet, a gift from Rodney on his birthday weeks before. The tablet was safely tucked away in a hardwearing black backpack with other odds and ends that Harry thought he might need for when they got to Atlantis so he could interface with the consoles and essential equipment.<p>

Harry was just checking his personal storage box, which also had his name stencilled on with military precision. He had his science uniform, which was beige, dark blue or black garments, with blue panels to show he was a member of the science department. He had a spare pair of high-quality and hardwearing hiking boots tucked at the bottom of the box and was just putting in his underwear, jogging bottoms, trainers and the few pairs of jeans and t-shirts he had managed to fit in. Harry was extremely pleased to find that he could also just about fit in his green converse and his leather jacket, and the diary from Elizabeth. Harry was just snapping the case shut and organising his clothing for the departure the next day when a marine was knocking and sticking his head around the door. He had come to take the storage box away and to also tell Harry that Weir wanted to see him in her temporary office.

Harry entered the office just five minutes later and was surprised to see the desk was clear of paper. The last time Harry had been in here was a few days ago and the desk had virtually been groaning with the weight of the mountains of paperwork sat on top of it. Elizabeth was sat behind the now clear desk and smiled when Harry entered.

"Hey." Harry perched in the chair she gestured to. "What did you wanna talk to me about?"

Elizabeth fiddled with her cup of coffee before looking Harry straight in the eye. "I just wanted to give you one last chance."

Harry was confused and allowed it to show on his face. "I don't understand."

Elizabeth cleared her throat before continuing. "We are going to another galaxy, with unknown dangers and potential enemies waiting there for us. It could be a one way trip. I want to give you a chance to back out now, in private. You are young, and I worry about you."

Harry sighed, but gave her a steeled gaze. "I'm going to be straightforward and speak plainly. You've read my file. You know that I'm from a really old English family and that my Mother married into that family from the outside. You also know that the tension over the last few years in England is from within a small and segregated community of old families. My parentage ensured that I would be in the middle of that, and the school I went to made it a reality. You know I was caught in that tension and was in the middle of some of the terror attacks. I know the British government won't give too many details about the entire situation and I can't go against that and explain to you."

Harry paused and saw Elizabeth giving him an intense and evaluating look. "I saw my best friends – people I would consider family to me – die right in front of me. For over two years, we wondered who would be the next one we were mourning." Harry lowered his voice softly. "Taking all that into account, I've experience more than some of the other scientists can imagine. Trust me; I'm not truly young anymore."

Elizabeth made as if she was going to cover Harry's clenched fist resting on the desk with her own hand, but stopped herself, remembering Harry's formality around others. She gave him a smile instead. "Ok. I understand. It won't stop me from worrying – I worry about every member of the expedition – but I won't bring it up again." She picked up her discarded coffee cup once again. "I'm going to head off to bed. We leave first thing tomorrow morning."

* * *

><p>Harry was riffling through his small backpack; unnecessarily triple checking that his tablet and all the other odd bits of computer equipment were inside. He had been awake for over two hours and had not stopped since then. He had woken up, got dressed in his beige and blue science uniform, thrown his jacket on and slipped out of his room. He managed to duck around the people in the canteen, grabbed a couple of the muffins and a bottle of water and ate as he made his way to the control room.<p>

He had spent the first hour and a half with Rodney and Radek as they silently fussed over the adapted dialling program, before Rodney had disappeared to the power control room to hook up the ZPM. Radek and Harry made their way down to the bustling gate room, Radek organising the scientists whilst Rodney wasn't there and Harry checking his equipment was all ready to go. Harry nodded to Carson, who was berating a few marines for not being careful enough with the crates of medicine as they clicked ominously. Once Harry was satisfied his equipment was all there, he booted up his tablet in readiness so that he could start straight away once they were through the Gate. He put it into standby mode and carefully shoved it into his backpack.

Just as he was shouldering his backpack and zipping up his jacket, he heard Elizabeth calling for attention. "Alright, here we go. We are about to try to make a connection. We have been unable to predict exactly how much power this is gonna take and we may only get the one chance at this, so if we are able to achieve a stable wormhole, we're not gonna risk shutting the Gate down. We'll send in the M.A.L.P robot probe, check for viability and go. Everything in one shot. Now, every one of you volunteered for this mission and you represent over a dozen countries. You are the world's best and brightest; and in light of the adventure we are about to embark on, you are also the bravest. I hope we all return one day having discovered a whole new realm for humanity to explore, but as all of you know, we may never be able to return home. I'd like to offer you all one last chance to withdraw your participation."

Harry saw a few people glance around the room, scientists and marines alike. Carson swallowed nervously and gave him and encouraging smile, which was returned, when he caught his eye. He looked back and saw Elizabeth smiling proudly around the room. She looked up above them at the glass to the control room. "Begin the dialling sequence."

Harry watched, fascinated, as the inner ring of the Gate began to spin, the light catching on the dulled metal. Lights began to illuminate around the edges and he blinked when what looked like a large blue cloud flew forward and then settled like a vertical lake inside the Gate. He blinked a few times to clear his head – the sight was mesmerizing in a strange way. He applauded politely with the others in the room all cheering loudly and whistling in triumph.

He waited anxiously for the minutes to pass as the MALP entered the Gate and took readings from the other side of the event horizon. Some kind of signal must have been given as he was intently watching the rippling blue wormhole, because the military commander, Sumner if Harry remembered correctly, was suddenly giving orders. Harry adjusted his backpack and couldn't help but smile as Elizabeth swiftly and politely put Sumner in his place and left no question as to who was in charge of the expedition.

Harry felt excitement well up inside of him as he nodded to the marines that were making sure his equipment all reached the other side of the Gate and grinned widely at Rodney as he joined him in front of the glimmering event horizon. Harry took a deep breath and stepped through the gate.


	3. Chapter 3

It took a few moments for the brightness of the event horizon to leave Harry's eyes and a few more for them to adjust to the dimness of the other side. Harry blinked and automatically moved slightly to the side, allowing the other scientists and marines to come through the Gate behind him. He took a deep breath and looked around the room.

It was large and dimly illuminated by the light from the Stargate. Directly in front of the Gate was a large set of stairs, which began to illuminate as Rodney and Sheppard wandered up. The writing on the staircase fascinated Harry and he was dying to get closer so he could translate it properly, but he had more pressing things to do. There were corridors leading away from the Gateroom both at the bottom of the stairs and at the top and Harry saw the dark shapes of the marines slinking down them.

Harry hardly took notice as Weir wandered past him, talking into a radio. The Gate shut down, making the room dimmer for a mere few seconds, but it began to get brighter as the main lights came on automatically. Harry smiled at the marines shifting his equipment to the side so it was out of the way, and turned to the staircase. He made quick work out of the stairs and bounded up next to an excited Rodney.

"Ok people; let's get ourselves set up here. I want access to the main systems as soon as possible." Rodney glanced up at his team and frowned. "Well, get moving!"

Harry smirked as the scientists froze for a second, before all moving as one. He shook his head, amused that the grumpy Canadian could still be so snarky during the most amazing journey of their collective lifetimes. He swung his backpack off his shoulder and pulled out his tablet. Harry dumped his bag next to what he guessed was the main console in the room and pulled the panel off the side, revealing the glowing crystals.

Harry gave an annoyed frown as he tried to connect to the system, even wiggling the connecters between his tablet and the console. He chewed his lip, and carefully removed the crystal connecter that he and Rodney had created in Antarctica. Harry pushed his hand deeper into the console, carefully navigating around the delicate crystals and found the secondary connection site, which was annoyingly far into the console. He tapped a few buttons one handed. Code began to scroll across his screen and he gave a bright smile.

"Making progress then?" Harry removed his hand from the inner depths of the console, sat up straighter and looked up at Rodney stood over him. "Yeah, I've managed to interface the console with my tablet. It is incredibly similar to the one at Antarctica."

"So all that time studying it paid off?" Rodney remarked dryly.

Harry merely gave a grin in reply. "Damn straight. It may have been an utter pain in my ass, but it has sped things up a lot." Harry looked past Rodney, and saw the other scientists tapping away at the elegant crystal controls on the other consoles. "How are the others doing?"

Rodney's eyes flicked over the others in the room, before returning to Harry. "We have managed to access the Gate controls and got through the first level of encryption so we can access the Gate address database. But we need to be able to access main controls soon."

Harry nodded and glanced back down at his tablet. "Right. I'm on it." Harry leaned back against the console next to the open panel and once again became absorbed in the code scrolling rapidly across the screen. He flexed his hands subconsciously, before his fingers began to dart across the touchscreen. A frown graced his features as he concentrated fully on his work, blocking out the outside world.

* * *

><p>Harry rubbed his eyes and scowled at his tablet screen. He had been able to access the readings for the life support systems and was confused with the output. Peter, another British member of the expedition, was sat in front of the console next to Harry's and Rodney was moving rapidly around the room, directing and berating the others in equal measure. Harry absently nodded to him as he came over to check how Peter was going with assessing the Gate addresses in the parts of the database that they had been able to get into so far.<p>

Harry was swearing under his breath and reread the Ancient code flitting across the screen in front of him. He leaned back against the cool side on the console and stretched his legs in front of him, working the kinks out. He had been in the same position for a while now, trying to make sense of the readings his tablet was giving him.

Rodney turned from the other British man and looked down at Harry, an eyebrow raised. Harry sighed and picked up his tablet once again, accessing the readings he had been analysing. He saw that they weren't any different and frowned. If what he was reading was true, then they were all in deep trouble. He opened his mouth to tell Rodney that he needed to look at his findings, when Rodney frowned and tapped his ear. Harry's frown deepened, but cleared when Rodney pointed to the radio in his ear with a roll of his eyes.

Harry dragged his backpack next to him and rummaged around until he found his own radio. He fitted it in his ear and spent a few minutes adjusting it as Rodney spoke into his own.

"Yeah, Carson. I'm sure it is amazing, but I'm kind of busy. No. No, of course not." Rodney gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Right. Five minutes, at most. Fine, fine. I'll be there in a moment." Rodney sighed and looked down at Harry. "Carson has something utterly amazing that I _have _to see apparently. I'm going to head up down there and see what he is blabbering on about. I'll be back soon."

"Before you go," Harry stood up, stretching his back. "You really need to see this." Harry gave him his tablet. "I've accessed the environmental sensors. This is the readout."

Rodney rapidly scrolled through the code on the screen, a scowl on his face. "This can't be right. It doesn't make any sense."

Harry shrugged. "I'm not a scientist. I'm a tech guy. But I've translated the words. These ones" He pointed out a few ancient characters, "say 'ocean', 'below' and 'seabed'. I can deduce what that means."

Rodney glanced up quickly, before studying the data again. "Damn. It makes sense now. Oh, we are so screwed if we don't fix this." Rodney handed the tablet back and starred into space for a minute, before suddenly clicking his fingers. "Right. I'm going to see what Carson wants and then find Elizabeth and break the good news. You keep working with Peter and access the power systems so we can work on sorting this out."

* * *

><p>Harry kicked a box out of his way, his arms loaded down with two of the laptops provided for the expedition. He already had a few connected, wires snaking between them and the consoles in the room. The other scientists were hard at work at them, absently nodding in thanks as Harry quickly and efficiently set it all up. He merely gave a smile and shrug in response – as the resident tech guy on the expedition, he felt it was his job to do all the computer stuff so that the others were free to work on their areas of expertise.<p>

Harry carefully placed the laptops down on top of a storage box next to the main console and opened them, starting the machines. He connected them to the main console and typed in a few commands. Once he was confident that they were working as they should do, he pulled his tablet back out of his backpack where he was storing it and made sure it was connected to all the new computers he had hooked up and the Ancient consoles.

"How are we doing Peter?" Harry questioned the British man, who had just returned to the control room with a bag containing energy bars and bottles of water. Harry accepted the water and quickly checked the flavour of his bar (chocolate, it was the first piece of luck Harry had had all morning). Harry shifted his tablet so it was more securely in the crook of his arm and took a bite out of his bar.

"We are still accessing the power readings for the city. We are just searching through the systems to get to the key areas." Peter sat back down and took a sip of water.

Harry took a seat next to him at the console and rested his tablet in his lap, leaning against the edge of the console, so that he still hand one hand free to eat his energy bar. He absently crumpled the wrapper and shoved it in his pocket as he immersed himself in the Atlantian computer system. He navigated through the complex system, before smiling in triumph as he located what looked like the energy consumption log.

"I've got it." Harry smiled at Peter, who leaned over to watch as Harry accessed the most recent energy readings in real time. But his smile soon disappeared as warnings in Ancient flashed up on his screen. He froze for a second, before accessing the logs from when they arrived.

"Damn. Energy levels have dropped to a dangerously low level since we have been arriving. And it is continuing to drop at an exponential rate. We need to tell Rodney!" Harry chewed his lip and frowned in worry as Peter jogged away without saying a word.

* * *

><p>Harry was sat in the control room with some of the most senior scientists on the expedition. A team of marines had just left through the Gate and Harry had watched briefly for a few moments as they disappeared through the glowing event horizon, before returning to his analysis on his tablet.<p>

"Energy levels are dangerously low, thanks to two depleted ZPMs and the third being close to giving up." Rodney made no attempt at introducing what this impromptu meeting was about. Everyone in the city knew how bad the current situation was. "Any ideas people?"

"What about the naquadah generators?" The scientist who spoken had a ponytail and glasses. Harry had bumped into him a few times in Antarctica and had taken a dislike to him. It wasn't that Harry cared what he was like personally because he had no burning desire to be friends with him, it was the fact that he felt the need to criticise Harry every time he saw him. "We could-"

Rodney cut the American off curtly. "No. It won't be enough."

"We have to at least try!" Kavanaugh blinked behind his glasses and glared at Rodney. "You could be wrong."

"I'm not." Rodney glared back. "And if we tried to hold back an entire ocean that is currently above and all around us, the generators will overload. They aren't enough."

"So that's it? You're not even going to consider my idea?"

"I've considered it already and I'm telling you it will not work. I'm not going to try something that I know won't work and waste the generators that we will need later on! And that is if we ignore the fact that if they overload, they will take us and a big portion of this city with them." Rodney's voice had an annoyed edge to it and was becoming sharper than normal, which was amazing because his voice was normally like the edge of a knife.

Radek, who was next to Harry, cut off the bespectacled irate American before he could speak again. "Rodney is right. Generators are not enough."

Harry looked around at the group as no one spoke up, the silence tense. "Ok. So we all know what we have to do. We have to leave."

Kavanaugh scoffed. "Yeah, that's right. We've come all the way to another galaxy to this city and we are going to leave based on the opinion of a teenager with no qualifications to justify why he should be here in the first place!"

Rodney stiffened in anger at the harshness in Kavanaugh's tone, but Harry shook his head at him. Ignoring the ponytailed man, Harry tapped on his tablet and turned it around so that the group could see the screen.

"I've been looking through some of the basic protocols that were activated by our arrival in the city. We can't access much of the database yet, but I can read the most recent logs." Harry's voice was soft, but everyone caught every word. "We can't raise the city. The stardrive engines control all movement of the city according to the database and it could take weeks, maybe months, to even gain access to that system. The moment that the city sensed a living presence, it activated the life-support systems. This caused a huge drain on the power." Harry tapped his screen and shown them a graph of the power consumption of the city from when they Gated there. "I've been able to determine that parts of the shield are pulling back and allowing areas to become flooded."

"Why would it do that?" A petite female scientist questioned, who was called Miko if Harry remembered correctly.

"It is conserving power. The city is sacrificing parts of itself so that the important areas remain safe. The control tower is the most important area, so the shield will most likely continue to pull back until it is just the tower being shielded. But even that will fail."

"So how will us leaving help that?" Kavanaugh questioned, a condescending edge to his voice and his arms crossed haughtily.

Harry ignored the urge to throw back a retort, but controlled himself and kept his tone neutral and his face blank. "I've been able to view some of the protocols and I've seen a few that will shut down the systems when there is no living presence in the city. I think that if we left, then the city will shut down all systems apart from the shield."

"Then we must leave until we find more ZPMs." Radek nodded at Harry in agreement.

Rodney sighed and rubbed his temple slightly. "Peter, I want you to show Elizabeth the shield failing. Harry, I assume you have accessed the log of the areas to be sacrificed?" Harry nodded and pulled up the required information. "Good. Send the information to Peter's tablet. I want everyone else to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. Sort out the equipment and only take what is necessary for our survival."

Harry quickly loaded the information onto Peter's tablet and gave it back to his fellow countryman with a grim nod. He looked around the Gate room as the scientists darted around busily like a hive of bees. Harry felt a stab of deep disappointment but stamped on it quickly. They had found the city and now they had to leave. But Harry was sure it was just for now. He really wanted to believe that they would find another power source and return to the magnificent city.

* * *

><p>Harry had his backpack on his shoulders, all his odds and ends packed away. The only thing still out was his tablet, which was still hooked up to the main console. Harry was monitoring the power readings as Rodney tried to convince Weir that they were safer leaving.<p>

"This city is sacrificing parts of itself in order to maintain these main areas but catastrophic failure is inevitable." Rodney looked down at his scientists around the stairs. They had separated the essential equipment needed for survival from stuff that they would have to leave behind.

Elizabeth frowned sadly. "Not in my wildest dreams would I hope to find the lost city of the Ancients so completely untouched, so pristine, and we have no choice but to walk away from this?"

"In order to save it." Rodney looked around again, well hidden sadness in his eyes.

"To save it for whom? We don't have enough power to send a message. As far as Earth is concerned we're just going to be missing, presumed lost."

"We'll be back. We'll find a power source somewhere in Pegasus." Rodney was confident in their ability to find a new power source and Harry couldn't help but agree with him. This couldn't be the only Ancient settlement in the entire galaxy. At least, Harry hoped not.

"We have yet to hear from Colonel Sumner. We've got no idea what's out there."

"We can't wait. It is time to go now." Rodney's tone was firm and Harry couldn't help but agree, as the reading on his tablet shown him that the energy level had reached a critically low level.

"Rodney, we are at critical level." Harry's voice was low, but Rodney heard it as though Harry had screamed it. Rodney gritted his teeth and moved towards the dialling console. He waited for the go-ahead from Elizabeth and began to quickly select chevrons. But even as he typed out the address, the Gate reversed and symbols glowed quicker than Rodney was entering them.

"We've got an incoming wormhole!" Rodney whacked another crystal button and the glowing shield activated.

"I'm reading Lieutenant Ford's identification code." Peter's accented voice sounded from behind a laptop on the console.

Elizabeth's voice had a concealed tone of relief. "Let him in."

Harry watched as Rodney deactivated the shield and saw the blue uniform of Sheppard jog through, closely followed by the black and green of the marines. Harry was confused, however, when a large group of other people came through. They were looking nervously around the room and wore simple clothing in shades of brown. They were a mixture of ages and sex.

Elizabeth ran down the staircase and met Sheppard at the bottom, amidst the foreign civilians. Harry saw them having a heated discussion, but was distracted from watching them as the shaking that he had almost successfully been ignoring until now increased drastically.

Harry took a more secure stance and began to frantically tap his tablet, double checking his readings. "Rodney! The shield is failing!"

The shaking had got so bad that Harry could barely stand up, but he managed to stay mostly upright. He barely noticed as boxes and crates fell to the ground down next to the Gate. He vaguely registered the others shouting about addresses and dialling out to another planet, but ignored it all in favour of looking at the readings from the main console. Harry couldn't keep his tablet still enough as he flailed about to keep his balance, so he shoved it into his backpack at his feet and quickly tottered over to a laptop that had been secured to a console a few metres away from him. He gripped the edge of the console with one hand and furiously typed with the other.

"Some kind of critical failsafe is kicking in!" Harry's voice was loud to carry above all the noise. "We're rising to the surface!"

Sunlight began to break into the room and illuminated the room in bright light, the colours of the stained glass windows around the Gateroom glinting off the dull metal surfaces in the room. Harry gave a bright smile, but it soon turned into a grimace of pain as the intense shaking finally got the better of him and he pitched forward. He barely had enough time to throw his hands out and make sure he rolled with the impact to minimise damage, but there was little he could do as his temple hit the sharp corner of the console.

The shaking had stopped and Harry was sat on the ground of the control room. He felt wetness on his temple and touched his head. He felt a spark of pain at his touch and pulled his hand away, finding warm blood on his fingers.

Peter hurried over, a marine hot on his heels, and made to touch Harry's head. Harry shifted backwards and raised his hands to ward him off. Seeing the confused and slightly hurt look on his countryman's face, Harry twisted his wrist so that Peter and the marine could see his medical bracelet clearly.

"It would be best of you didn't – at least, not without gloves." Peter and the marine nodded in understand and the marine pulled a bandage out of his vest and carefully handed it over. Harry scrunched it up and gingerly pressed it as hard as he could to stem the small flow of blood.

"Carson has started to set the medical bay up a few floors down. You should go and get that looked at." Harry turned and saw both Elizabeth and Rodney stood behind him, eyeing him in concern. Harry scowled at them, but grimaced as a sharp pang of pain laced though his temple.

"Fine. But once I'm done there, I'm coming back to sort out my equipment."

Harry saw Rodney roll his eyes, but he didn't argue. Before he could make some kind of snarky comment, Harry wandered down the control room stairs and headed in the vague direction that he remembered someone mentioning that the medical bay was situated.

* * *

><p>"So lad, what do you think?"<p>

Harry looked around the room from his place on the bed as much as he could with Carson firmly holding his head in place. The room was alive with activity as nurses, doctors and marines arranged equipment and supplies. The room had an elegant design, one that was both functional and pleasant to be surrounded by.

"Its looking good, Carson." Harry winced at Carson pressed the paper stitches tightly over his cut. "Was it originally an Ancient medical bay?"

"Aye – well, we believe so." Carson adjusted the stitched and pulled away to grab a dressing. "The equipment appears to be diagnostic machines. I guess we will find out soon enough. Rodney has promised me some of his staff will be down as soon as they are all set up in their own labs a floor up."

Harry tilted his head so Carson could securely stick the small dressing over the cut. "So Rodney has rooms chosen for labs already? Good, I can get my equipment set up soon then." Carson moved away and pulled his gloves off, shoving them into a medical waste bin. Harry gently felt the dressing. "Do I have to wear this thing? I though it wasn't too bad?"

Carson slapped his hand away to stop it poking the injury. "Aye, you have to wear it. It is best with an open cut, especially considering your medical condition." Harry rolled his eyes, but nodded in defeat. "You don't have a concussion and it is a minor injury, but I want you to promise me you won't push yourself too hard for a day or two."

Harry jumped down from the table and bounced across the room away from the Scotsman. He grinned over his shoulder as he left, causing Carson to shake his head. "You know I can't promise that. Carson. This is the Lost City of Atlantis! I have so much to do!" Harry threw casually over his shoulder as he disappeared out the doorway.

Harry bounded up the stairs towards the Gateroom two at a time, glad that Carson forced those painkillers down his throat and that they were starting to take effect, easing the dull ache in his temple. It would be much harder for him to get any work done in his new lab and set it all up properly if he had a killer headache to deal with. It was just his damn luck that he was the only one who had something more than a surface bruise thanks to the jerky journey to the surface of the ocean.

Harry retrieved his backpack from the control room, checking to make sure that his tablet had fared better than he had in the rising. He was relieved to see that it was still in perfect condition and swung his pack over his shoulder. He made his way down the staircase to where a young marine was directed people taking the equipment, boxes, crates and supplies away from the Gateroom and to the correct area. Harry saw his own boxes and crates carefully stacked in a corner, their stencilling neatly informing everyone which department they were meant for.

"Hey." Harry smiled at the young marine and stopped to stand next to him. "I was wondering if I could borrow a few marines for a few minutes to take my equipment to my lab."

The marine nodded, and beckoned a few more marines over. Harry nodded to them in greeting. "I need all the stuff for the computing lab taken to my lab. I assume one of you knows where it is?" Harry saw the marines nod silently and watched as they began to head over to the pile of equipment. More marines joined them and soon all of Harry's equipment was being hurled out of the Gateroom and down a couple of corridors.

Harry followed silently and as he passed a large room, he heard Rodney's voice raised in annoyance as he berated his science teams about the placement of equipment. It seemed like this entire corridor had been commandeered by the science department, because every room that Harry glanced in had scientists moving around equipment and unpacking supplies. Harry thanked the marines as they made their way back past him towards the Gateroom and silently entered the room that they had placed his equipment in.

Harry was surprised to find that he would have the room to himself, as he expected to share it with another scientist or two. But he saw only his own equipment in the room and he knew that all the other large pieces of equipment had been moved from the Gateroom, so he was the last person to be allocated a lab. Harry grinned to himself and observed the rest of the room.

It was a medium sized room, with work benches at one side. There was an ancient console on the other side of the room and a large piece of what appeared to be glass hanging on the wall in front of it. Harry assumed it was the screen for the console. Directly in front of Harry, there were floor to ceiling windows, offering Harry a spectacular view of both the towers of the city and the ocean. Harry saw a panel on the wall near the windows and after some quick experimentation, found that it could be used to make the windows opaque to varying degrees, like a dimmer switch on a light. Harry turned and saw that there was a sofa and two chairs arranged around a small table in one corner of the room. A door in the corner almost missed his attention and Harry found it was a small bathroom.

Harry rubbed his hands together and began to sort through his equipment.

* * *

><p>Harry was kneeling on top of a workbench, a drill in one hand and a bracket clutched in the other. He was carefully mentally measuring the height above the bench and almost jumped in shock when his earpiece crackled into life. Harry put down the drill and tapped his radio in annoyance.<p>

"What do you want? It better be important because I'm currently balanced on top of a desk."

Rodney's grumpy voice sounded in Harry's ear. "Are you sure you should be doing that after you cut open your head earlier?"

Harry huffed in annoyance and picked the drill back up. "I'm fine. And these monitors won't put themselves up. What did you want Rodney?"

"I know you have managed to get remote access to the address database on your tablet. I need you to search for addresses containing the symbols I've sent to you."

Harry put both the drill and bracket down this time and leaned across to the next workbench and grabbed his tablet. A quick search revealed a dozen address in the database. "Ok. I've got 12."

"Ok, so narrow that down to ones that can sustain life."

"I've got…..4."

"Right. Look for any that they Ancients mark as dangerous, or as the enemy or even just some kind of caution label attached."

Harry entered the new parameters. He grinned. "Bingo. Only 1 address." Harry copied the address and sent it to Rodney's laptop. He put his tablet back down and grabbed the drill once again. "I've sent it to your laptop."

Harry drilled the holes and attached the bracket to the wall. He swiftly connected the monitor and climbed off the desk. Looking around the room, Harry felt a moment of pride and feeling of satisfaction. He had set up the server in one discreet corner of the room and had already started to work on the network that they were going to use on Atlantis. He had half a dozen monitors attached to the wall above the work bench and keyboards, touchpads and a computer mouse or two connected up. On the other work bench, he had lots of bits and pieces including a few laptops, a spare tablet, hard drives and a multitude of other useful things. Harry's budget from the Governments involved in the expedition had allowed him to make sure that he got the best, most hardwearing and reliable equipment he could find.

It had taken a while, but he had managed to connect it all up to the console so that his equipment was getting power, and now he just had to interface the console so that he could access the Ancient databases and archives. He had the side access panel off the console in minutes and was reluctantly crawling underneath, his interface crystal clutched tightly in his hand. It took him almost twenty minutes crammed under the console amongst the glowing crystals, but he managed to find the right connection point. He pulled himself out and looked up at the glass screen on the wall. Ancient words floated across the surface. Harry gave a small cry of triumph and threw himself into the seat in front of the console and began to happily type away.

"Wow." A voice sounded behind Harry. "You move fast. You've got this room set up in just a few hours."

Harry turned and saw that three marines were stood in his lab doorway. They were all between 24 and 26. Harry had trained with them at the Antarctica base. He had been in the gym jogging on the running machine early one morning and they had joined him. It hadn't been long before they were all talking about exercise, their hobbies and the impending expedition to Atlantis. Once they had discovered that they all did different kinds of martial arts, they began to train together as well as exercise. It had been good for Harry to socialise with others who were going to Atlantis as well. They were a whole galaxy away from Earth and friendships would be important.

Harry smiled. "Oh, you know me. I've got to get it all done before I can relax."

Daniel rolled his eyes and glanced at his fellow marines, Zack and Nate. "I thought you might say that. So we thought we would come and see you, make sure you eat." He pulled out an MRE and a bottle of water. Harry caught them as he tossed them over and grinned at them. Back in Antarctica, they would bring him snacks when he was pulling all-nighters, studying the consoles and other Ancient technology.

Harry moved off his chair in front of the console and sunk down into one of the armchairs, gesturing to the others to sit also. They all sat down on the other seats and pulled out their own MREs. Harry smiles slightly as he saw that they had managed to snag not only a vegetarian one for him, but one that was an edible flavour. Not that they were great to begin with. "So, what have you guys been doing all this time?"

Nate shrugged, chugging his water. He wiped his mouth and grimaced. "I've been helping move the botanists into the rooms they found a couple levels below. I swear, if I see anymore plants, I'm gonna go mad. And they shouted at me about 'respecting plant rights' just cos I put one down harder than they liked. Honest to God shouted at me!"

Daniel laughed. "Thank God I had patrol duty. I couldn't take so much time with the scientists." He took a large bite of his food and glanced at Harry. "Not including you of course, Harry. You are at least normal."

Harry chuckled. "Don't be fooled. Behind this awesome and handsome image lies a true tech nerd."

Zack shook his head. "Well, you are the most normal of all the genius scientists we have running around. At least I only had to make sure that none of the scientists fell into the tanks as they tested the city's water supply. I swear that they think we are only here to be grunts and do the heavy lifting."

Harry snorted. "Well, you are here to do the heavy lifting. And to point and shoot when aliens try to kill us."

"Harry, how could you say such things?" Zack said dramatically, with such a ridiculously exaggerated sad face that they couldn't help but laugh. Harry finished his food, still chuckling.

"Thanks for the food guys."

Daniel finished up his own food and drank the last of his water. "Not a problem. Maybe next time we will be able to have real food. They are setting up the kitchen right now and have already got all the seating sorted."

Nate pointed to a box next the door in the room that Harry hadn't even noticed until now. It was his box of personal belongings, with his name stencilled on with uniform precision. "They have found rooms with beds and stuff that they have come to the obvious conclusion is living quarters. They will do one last sweep tomorrow to make sure they are safe and then assign rooms. Until then, they have set up some barracks for everyone. We thought it would be best to bring your stuff to your lab so you don't have to search thought all the crates tomorrow trying to find a change of clothes." Nate grinned. "And seeing as you have a couch, you would probably be more comfortable here than in a room with four or five other people."

Harry nodded. "Thanks guys. What are you all going to do?"

Zack grinned. "We are used to sleeping in barracks. Getting personal rooms tomorrow will be a luxury compared to some postings I've had. And we have patrol at different time tonight, so we won't be there all night."

All three marines stood up and gathered up the wrappers from the meal. "Well, we best get back."

"Yay, more scientists to babysit." Nate muttered under his breath. He swept out of the room, waving at Harry, with a dejected look on his face. Harry waved at him and the others at they left to go back to their duties. Harry shook his head in amusement and turned back to the Ancient console.

* * *

><p>Harry nodded politely at the man before him, and took sips of his steel mug of water. Hew knew that there was champagne going around, but he had never cared for the drink and only forced himself to have a glass when the situation demanded he did so and it would be rude not to. Harry took another sip and gave a courteous smile as another man and woman joined his small group.<p>

It had been a few hours since the rescue party had returned through the Gate and a quick celebration party had been thrown together at the last minute to celebrate being in Atlantis and a successful rescue mission. Harry had been in his lab working on the computer network at the time, but Rodney had later told him all about their people returning through the Gate safely.

Harry was able to escape the group of scientists and Athosians he was in whilst they were distracted by the topic of conversation and managed to weave his way over to Rodney and Carson.

"Enjoying the party lad?" Carson took a sip of his mug of champagne, looking Harry over critically. "How's your head?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, Doc. Really. And the party is good. I'm glad to take a break, but I'm eager to get back to my work."

Carson shook his head in amusement. "Aye, you and Rodney are alike in that way."

Rodney glared at Carson before turning to Harry. "I haven't had a chance to go to your lab yet, but how are you getting along?"

Harry nodded. "Good. I've got all my equipment set up, have accessed the power in the room and have interfaced and accessed the console in the room."

"Good. The console is the reason I've given you that lab. Having access to the Ancient database is important. Have you set the network up yet?"

"I've got it set up, and I just need to make a few small adjustments and then I'll do a full check once all the computers have been connected." Harry saw Daniel and Nate out of the corner of his eye heading away from the food table. "I'll see you at the meeting at 10am tomorrow." Harry smiled a nodded at Rodney and Carson and swiftly made his way over to the two marines.

"Hey." Daniel and Nate grinned at Harry. "I was just wondering if you wanted to plan some training sessions."

"Sure. How about we run together in the mornings? I know neither if us, or Zack, have anything at 6 for about an hour. And one room that has been assigned is a new sparring room. We can meet every evening at about 6, before dinner?" He smiled when Harry enthusiastically nodded. "They've set a room aside as a gym, but haven't set all the equipment up yet. The labs, control room, mess and living space all take priority over any of the recreation areas."

"Yeah, I get that. It will be set up soon, so no big loss." Harry shrugged and turned to lean against the railing on the balcony that the party was being held on. The sea was illuminated with the dying light of the setting sun and it reflected of the surface, glinting a thousand different colours.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Zack's quiet voice drifted over to them and he leaned next to them, admiring the view.

"Yeah." Harry swallowed. It really was a magnificent view, made all the more incredible by the fact that they were on an alien plant, in a whole different galaxy, far away from home. Harry could feel the excitement bubbling in his chest and couldn't wait to see what adventures this unbelievable experience would bring.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry woke up in darkness. He blinked a few times to clear his bleary eyes and allowed them to adjust to the dim light available to him. He was confused for only a few moments and tried to work out why he had woken up in the first place when a quiet beeping caught his attention.

Looking around in the minimal light available, Harry's eye was caught by a flashing on his laptop screen to accompany the annoying sound. Harry had set an alarm the night before so he would wake up in time to meet his friends for their scheduled run. Harry stumbled off the sofa he had been sleeping on and shut down the persistent reminder. Once the irritating noise had gone, he stretched his muscles to get rid of any cramps. Harry had to admit that he was pleasantly surprised – the sofa had actually been quite comfortable, despite its appearance.

A few minutes later and Harry's computers were running a quick diagnostic in preparation for Harry's work later that day and he was wearing his trainers, jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. Harry ran a hand through his hair to try and make it presentable, but gave up when he realised that it never had and never would behave.

"Hey." Nate's soft voice sounded behind him as Harry made his way through the nearly empty corridors to the balcony that they had all agreed to meet on to start their morning run. Nate was rubbing sleep from his eyes and grinning at Harry's hair.

"Oh shut up." Harry grumbled as Nate opened his mouth to make some kind of witty comment, like he had many times on Earth. Harry saw Daniel and Zack were already waiting for them on the balcony as they approached and raised his hand in greeting.

"Hey." Zack nodded his greeting. "How was your nice sofa last night?"

Harry gave a small smirk and began to warm up and stretch. "It was nice and comfy thanks. How was the barracks?"

Daniel scowled and looked over at Nate. "It was like sleeping next to a lawn mower. I swear, not one of us managed to sleep thanks to Nate. I seriously hope that the rooms are sound proof or that I'm as far from your room as possible." They all snickered as Nate glared daggers at Daniel and protested that it wasn't his fault and he couldn't do anything about it.

Harry finished up his warm up and began to slowly jog off the balcony and down the empty corridors. He heard the others stop arguing and follow him through the winding and elegant corridors. Harry had a chance to look around the currently explored area of the magnificent city and couldn't help but be impressed. Harry may have seen some of the most beautiful buildings that the magical world had to offer, but this was completely different. The entire design was literally so alien compared to everything he had ever seen and it ensured that he would never forget that he was in an entirely new galaxy in an advanced city.

The longer they jogged the more they woke up and the busier the corridors also became as people began to wake up and go about their daily tasks and business. Harry looked back at his companions and saw Daniel gesturing towards the corridor leading to the canteen. Harry nodded and veered off to the side. He slowed his pace and soon found himself in the canteen. Glancing at his watch, Harry saw that he didn't have too long left before his meeting with Weir.

"I'm just gonna grab a drink and something to eat, then I have to go shower and change for my meeting."

Zack was also glancing at his watch. "Yeah, I've got patrol in a bit."

Nate had slipped away whilst they were talking and had grabbed a tray of fruit, energy bars and bottles of water. "Here you go."

Harry grabbed a bottle of water, an apple and a strawberry energy bar. "Do you mind if we head towards my lab? I've really got to shower and change soon or I'm going to be late." Harry smiled as they nodded and swiftly left the canteen. His lab wasn't that far away, but they had to duck around lots of Atlantis personnel and Athosians as the crowds all made their way towards breakfast.

Harry had finished his food by the time they got back to his lab and was just polishing off his water as he entered the access code to his lab on the panel. He quickly glanced around as saw that his system had finished the diagnostics and was ready for him to use. He disconnected his tablet and shoved it into his trusty backpack. Ignoring his companions for the time being, Harry quickly folded his blanket and shoved it and his pillow into a handy cupboard that he had found in the wall last night. He rifled through his military issue trunk and pulled out his clothing for the day and a towel and headed towards the bathroom, telling the others to make themselves at home.

Following what was possibly both the best and quickest shower of his life, Harry quickly changed and exited the bathroom. Harry saw that Zack and Nate were lounging on his couch. Glancing around, Harry scowled when he saw that Daniel was playing around with one of his laptops.

"Sorry." Daniel pulled his hands back as though he had been burnt, a sheepish grin on his face. "I just wanted to see what it is you do. But it is all way above my intelligence level."

Harry rolled his eyes, tucking his running clothes into his trunk. "Please, you marines like us all to think you are stupid. But I know better – the best the world has to offer has been sent here, so I know you are all smarter than your average soldier. You can't trick me." Harry grinned.

"Yeah, well." Daniel rubbed his neck in mild embarrassment. It was one of the reasons that Harry liked this group of marines – they were modest about their talents and there wasn't an ounce of arrogance in them. It was refreshing for Harry to be around when he had been fighting against the most self-worshipping and arrogant enemy in the history of the magical community. Which was saying something considering that most wizards Harry had met were at least bordering on self-indulgent conceit. Daniel cleared his throat. "Can we use your shower? It would be quicker than waiting for any of the others and we won't be assigned rooms until later today."

Harry grabbed his backpack and threw it over his shoulder. "Sure, as long as you don't play with my equipment again. You guys can work out among yourselves who gets to go first. I'll see you all in the sparring room after dinner."

Harry left the room when they nodded in confirmation and smiled as he heard them argue about who should get to shower first and then finally resort to rock paper scissors. Harry was still softly smiling as he got to Weir's office in the control room. Due to the War, it had been so long since Harry had made any new friends. It was difficult at first for him to form any kind of connections with people. Harry had distanced himself easily from others, the etiquette that had been ingrained helping immensely. But now that the War was over and Harry was in a whole new galaxy, he felt it was time to move on. It would take time, but Harry felt he was starting a new life here.

"Good morning, Elizabeth." Harry entered the office and sat in the empty chair in front of the desk. He pulled his tablet out of his backpack and shoved the bag under his chair.

"Good morning Harry." Weir smiled at Harry and took a sip of her coffee. "I saw you earlier this morning, jogging with some of the marines."

Harry glanced up, a neutral expression on his face. It was a harmless comment, but Harry had learnt to read people well and could see that behind the innocent comment that Elizabeth was fishing for information. Harry knew that she only wanted what was best for him and everyone on the expedition, but it was difficult to give any personal information freely for him.

Harry took a breath and answered, deciding that he had to try to be more open about neutral and harmless things. It wasn't as though he was revealing the existence of his people to her. Harry was finding it difficult to keep his magic use to a bare minimum whilst on Atlantis – he was a being of magic and to not use it felt like not using his hands sometimes. However, it was paramount that the secret of his peoples' existence be kept, unless he had permission to reveal it from an international committee.

"Yes, I run and exercise with them. We met in Antarctica and had a schedule there that we are trying to maintain here."

Weir nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. "That's good. I know it is early to be thinking about this, but whilst on Earth we established strict guidelines. All civilian scientists were required to pass a physical evaluation test, but that is not enough to be allowed offworld. I know Major Sheppard is planning some evaluations and training sessions for all the scientists. I guess that passing those won't be a problem for you."

Harry shook his head. "I think it will be a long time before I get offworld. I may not have any problems passing the evaluations, but it is going to take us a while to get settled in here. Even then it will be mostly stuff brought back through the gate that I will be studying."

"Don't count on it going like that. Trust me; it never goes as you planned out here in the universe." Weir took another sip of her coffee. "So, how is everything going? Are we close to being set up yet?"

Harry rested his tablet on the edge of the desk and flipped through a few different files and programmes. "I've almost got all the computers networked. I'm just waiting for a few of the labs to be completely set up and then a few of the marines to come to me to get their laptops set up. But mostly, we are all connected. I've got my lab set up and everything ready to go."

"You move fast." Weir commented, slightly surprised.

Harry pulled up another programme as he answered. "Yeah, well, it's what I'm here to do after all. And I've not exactly had much else to do anyway – we are in another galaxy." Harry finally opened the right programme. "And whilst I had some time last night before I went to bed, I've wrote a quick programme to help Peter with the personal quarters allocation. I've already sent it to his laptop. All he needs to do is enter the Athosians as groups that want to be roomed together and then select the rooms that have been cleared and authorised. All the Atlantis personnel have already been entered. Once he has entered all the rooms to be used and the groups, the programme will randomly assign the rooms based on their size and the size of the group. So, the biggest group sharing rooms will get assigned the biggest room available."

Weir just blinked, shocked for a moment. "That's really useful. I know Peter was worried about making sure everyone got a room allocated and that everyone would be fairly allocated enough space. I'm sure he will be very grateful to you."

Harry shifted in his seat. "I'm glad that I could help. Unless you need anything else, I'll leave you to your meeting with Peter and get to work in the control room." Harry saw Elizabeth nod and rose from his seat, snagging his bag in his hand on the way up. Elizabeth stood also and left her room through the other door.

* * *

><p>Harry smiled at Radek as he handed Harry a steel mug of tea from the tray he was carrying, glad that the Czech scientist had remembered that Harry hated coffee. Harry took a sip of the scalding brew and took a moment to savour it. He had been working for a few hours now and was glad of the minor reprieve. Ancient code was scrolling rapidly across the screen of his tablet.<p>

Clutching his mug tightly so he didn't spill any hot tea onto his tablet or the laptop mounted on the console in front of him, he rubbed his eyes with his other hand and focussed once again on his task. They had spent the better part of the last few hours setting up the security on their own system and making sure that they were integrated with the ancient systems and were giving out the right readings. They were running into a few issues and were slowly managing to resolve them.

Taking a break before he started to work through another layer of ancient coding, Harry looked around at all the others working diligently in the control room and frowned. He saw Radek glower at his laptop and conversing rapidly with the scientist next to him, gesturing to his laptop and the ancient console screen in turn. Marines were moving back and forth throughout the gateroom and control room. Harry couldn't see their snarky Canadian department head though.

Harry shook his head and was about to continue with his ancient coding, when he saw the illusive physicist in question bounding up the stairs from the gateroom with the Airforce Major, and the now military commanding officer on Atlantis, John Sheppard. Harry smirked at the childlike glee on both men's faces and went back to work. Harry would have thought it impossible for such a super-intelligent and grumpy man to regress in age and get so excited, but he had seen Rodney when he got his hands on some new and fascinating piece of technology. It was like he was a twelve year old boy again.

Harry was just immersing himself in his work once again, when he heard McKay's excited voice and a loud crashing. He looked up and saw that Rodney was lying on the floor of the gateroom, having gone over the balcony, and Sheppard was looking over the railing with a wide smirk. Harry stood up in shock, all thoughts of work forced out of his brain. He dashed to out of the control room and bounded down the stairs two at a time and gracefully skidded to a holt just as Rodney was picking himself up and Elizabeth came rushing over, Peter close by her side.

"I'm fine!" Rodney was grinning like a big kid on Christmas morning. He saw Elizabeth's expression and was quick to explain himself. "Look, Beckett's gene therapy worked. I was able to activate this. It's a, um, personal shield: acts like a protective skin. And it must have inertial dampening properties because I didn't feel a thing!"

Rodney gestured wildly behind him at the high balcony and his grin got wider. Harry was busy inspecting the glowing device stuck to Rodney's chest. Shields were nothing new to Harry. The magical shield that Harry could create perfectly after years of it being a life-saving essential when on the frontline of a war absorbed all forms of energy thrown at it, including kinetic energy. Harry wondered if the personal shield created by the device worn by Rodney only stopped a limited amount or only some forms of energy. Magical shields were only limited by how talented the wizard creating it was.

"Watch this." Rodney's eager voice broke into Harry's contemplation. Rodney looked directly at Peter. "Hit me."

Before Harry could even utter a warning in how much of a stupid idea it would be, Peter aimed and threw his fist towards Rodney's face without any kind of hesitation. A green force shield appeared and flared before Peter's fist could connect. With a cry of pain, Peter pulled his fist back and cradled it to his chest, glaring at the Athosian children laughing nearby.

Rodney threw a dark look at the British tech still holding his hand close. "You didn't have to swing so hard," Rodney's voice had a superior edge. "And notice he didn't even hesitate."

Harry rolled his eyes and saw Elizabeth doing the same, but more subtly. Her voice was incredulous. "I'm still trying to work how you think it was a good idea to test this device by having someone throw you off a balcony."

McKay grinned widely and gestured to Sheppard. "Oh, that isn't the first thing we tried."

Sheppard shot him a look, a gleeful grin plastered across his features. "I shot him." Sheppard must have seen the looks he was receiving because his smirk faded slightly. "In the leg!" His voice was defensive.

Harry took a step closer to the Canadian, ignoring his crowing and arguing with Elizabeth about he was invulnerable and how she was just jealous. The device was still glowing a steady green, but the circuitry was all inside, so Harry couldn't deduce how it worked. Being able to stop a bullet was useful. Being a wizard, Harry could create a powerful shield that he knew could stop a whole barrage of bullet. The real problem was having fast enough reactions and instincts to get the shield fully formed before the bullets hit.

Harry was still studying the device, when a hand passed in front of his vision and tried to grab the device. He zoned back into the conversation and saw that both Rodney and Sheppard were trying to remove the device but couldn't. Harry wasn't sure why at least Rodney couldn't reach the device to take it off. He wasn't about to get too worried about it though. If anyone could solve the problem, it would be the genius Canadian. Harry may have only been working with him for a short time, but it was enough to convince him that he had never met anyone more intelligent (or snarky) than Rodney. Sometimes, when Rodney was buried in his work, Harry suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia and sadness. He reminded Harry so much of Hermione, especially when he got a glint in his eye after discovering some important or interesting fact.

Harry missed Hermione so much. He missed all his friends that he lost during the War. But being in the lost city of Atlantis in a whole other galaxy made Harry think about his surrogate sister. Hermione would have loved being here, learning new things and being surrounded by people who were just like her. People with a passion for learning new and wonderful things that changed the way they would look at life forever. It was Hermione that Harry thanked in his mind for bringing him here. If not for her gift of that first laptop, Harry would never have discovered his talent and been invited on this expedition.

Hermione had been with Harry right until the end. The final battle, in all its clichéd glory, had been when Voldemort attacked Hogwarts personally. He normally sent his minions to do his violent and bloody bidding. But Hogwarts was the pinnacle of the War, and Voldemort wanted to be victorious himself. But Voldemort had been unprepared for just how organised the Resistance was. Despite the preparation in both sides, many people had died that day. Harry had finally killed Voldemort, and then he went in search of his friends. Those friends that had survived to fight in the final battle had died. There were few survivors that would call a true friend.

Harry pulled his thoughts from the past and concentrated on the present day situation. He smirked as he watched Peter wander down to the infirmary with Rodney trailing after him, complaining loudly the entire way. Harry followed Elizabeth and Sheppard up the stairs to the control room and shared a smirk with Radek as he settled himself back into his seat and went back to the work that he had abandoned after Rodney's swan dive off the balcony.

He had been working for ten minutes when he finally had the interface programme that he was working on bug free and connected to the Ancient systems. He made sure it was all running ok on the laptop and stood up. He grabbed his tablet and tucking it into the crook of his arm so it was secure, turned to Radek.

"I'm done with the interface programme for the power consumption readings. I'm going to head down to the infirmary to see Peter. I didn't get a chance to talk him through the room allocation programme I sent him."

Radek glanced up from the tech's laptop he was peering at, no doubt dealing with a problem the tech had in a much kinder and quieter way than Rodney would have if he had been overseeing the work and nodded. "Yes, go. I have everything in control here. I will radio if I need anything."

Harry trotted down the stairs, bounding two steps at a time. He dodged around the marines, scientists and Athosians as he navigated the corridors and steps down to the infirmary. He smiled slightly and nodded as he saw Zack hurry after a few of the biologists that he had been assigned to help. Zack smiled back, although it was a slight grimace as Harry nodded his head towards the biologists chatting loudly and happily in front of the marine. Harry's grin got wider and Zack glared at him until Harry was around the corner and out of sight.

Harry had just silently entered the infirmary, his face carefully neutral once again, when he saw Rodney pouring coffee down his front. He was about to ask if McKay had finally lost it to be pouring his precious coffee away, when he saw the green shield flaring. No coffee seemed to be breaching the shield and Harry's quick mind immediately saw the issue. Rodney wasn't gulping the coffee like there was no tomorrow because the shield was blocking him from drinking the liquid.

"That's great!" Harry winced at the annoyance and snark in Rodney's tone. Nothing good had ever come from that tone.

"This may be more serious than I suspected." Carson had a guilty look on his face as he gently finished bandaging Peter's hand.

"Why, thank you! I'm hungry already. What am I going to do? If I don't get this stupid thing off, I'll be dead by the end of the day."

"Relax. You can live three or four days without water." Carson's guilty look subsided slightly as he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm talking about food!"

"Well, you found some Ancient text with the device. What did it say about taking it off?"

"Oh yeah, there were some explicit instructions which I chose to completely ignore!" Rodney's voice was sarcastic.

Harry chose that moment to step further into the room and make his presence known. He nodded to all three men and stopped by a bed opposite all three of them. Gracefully pulling himself up, he settled onto the bed and gently rested his tablet next to him. He eyed Rodney even as he addressed the others. "I've come to see how Peter is and to discuss the programme I sent to him earlier this morning." Peter lifted his hand up, showing how it was wrapped up and got down from his perch on the bed. Harry looked Rodney up and down again. "And just a thought, but a lot of Ancient tech seems to require some kind of mental control."

"Just shut up. I'm thinking." Rodney closed his eyes tightly and scrunched his face up in concentration. Harry's gaze flicked between Rodney's pinched face and the still dimly lit device. The room was unnaturally silent for a few moments.

Peter was the first to break the silence. He looked at Carson. "Is there any chance that the gene therapy isn't permanent?"

"It's possible." Carson's tone was unconvincing and did nothing to reassure any of them.

"I'm a dead man." Rodney's eyes were still closed and his tone was pathetic.

Harry bounded off the bed and rolled his eyes at the melodramatic physicist. He grabbed his tablet and tucked it under his arm. Rodney opened his eyes when he heard Harry's feet connect with the floor and watched as he made his way towards the door, closely followed by Peter. He stopped at the door and turned to face his department head.

"You have that meeting with Elizabeth and Major Sheppard right now, so I'll see you after that in the control room."

Harry marched out of the infirmary and quickly made his way towards the control room. When they were half way there, he turned to Peter. "Did you receive that programme that I uploaded to your laptop?"

Peter nodded. "Yes. It will be very helpful. Thank you. I was worried about making sure that everyone would be allocated a large enough room with a fair amount of space. Once I have been to this meeting and programmed which rooms have been cleared for use, then I can allocate rooms. I have already entered all the Athosian groups."

Harry shrugged. "That's good. So we should all have rooms by tonight?"

"Yes." By now they had reached the control room and paused by the bustling group of scientists. "The programme will only take a few minutes once I have entered the rooms to be allocated. I will send the listings and maps to everyone's laptop and send a few marines around the Athosians to let them know which rooms they have. You should be in your room in a few hours."

Harry grabbed his backpack from under the console he had been working on earlier and carefully shoved his tablet inside. Zipping it up, he replied to Peter. "I'm looking forward to that. The sofa in my office is nice and comfy, but talk about taking my work home with me – or not leaving work, in fact." Harry swung his bag over his shoulder. "I'm gonna grab something to eat from the mess, and I'll see you back here in a bit after your meeting with Elizabeth about the space allocation."

By the time Harry got down to the mess, the main lunch time crowd had already been through and the kitchen staff had already cleared the tables off. Harry dodged around the tables and chairs that were uniformly arranged in the room and headed towards the tables where the platters of food were waiting so you could serve yourself. He frowned when he saw that he had missed out on most of his preferred foods.

"Hey, Harry."

Harry turned and saw that one of the marines was waving him over. Lieutenant Matt Barlow was one of the kitchen staff on Atlantis and was tasked with keeping both the military and civilian staff happy. It was his, and his kitchen colleagues', duty to make sure the food was rationed properly. And to make sure that any local produce they procured – which they would need to do soon – was used to make creative and satisfying dishes.

Matt came towards where Harry was stood next to a cleared and empty table. He slid a tray onto the table and Harry looked down at it. There was a wrapped sandwich on it (which Harry discovered was tuna upon closer inspection), a steel mug of tea and a chocolate muffin. Harry looked up and saw Matt watching him expectantly.

"I saw that all the vegetarian options were going and I saved you some. And I know how much you Englishmen like your tea. That," Matt's voice held an edge of humour. "and I've seen you with anything that contains sugar."

Harry gave Matt a grin and took a sip of the tea, relishing it. Matt sure knew how to make the perfect brew. Harry had met Matt when he was at the SGC, and then found out that they were both going to Atlantis. The first time they had met, Harry had been trying to find a vegetarian option out of the leftovers from the dinner service hours before. Because the SGC ran on strange hours due to all the offworld travel, there was always at least one member of the kitchen staff around. Harry had been scowling at the options, when Matt had come over and asked if he could help him with anything. Harry had thanked him and told him about being vegetarian, and from that day on Matt had made sure that he saved food for Harry.

"Thanks. I probably would have been stuck with an energy bar or, God forbid, an MRE if you hadn't saved this for me." Harry grabbed the sandwich and quickly devoured half of it, washing it down with his tea. "How is everything going here?"

"Good." Matt sat himself down in a chair and took a drink of his coffee. "That programme that you set us up with before leaving Earth is great. It really helps keep track of supplies as we use or gain them." Matt grabbed a thermos jug full of tea and topped up Harry's mug.

Harry finished off his sandwich and checked his watch. "I've got to go. I've got a meeting in the control room in a few minutes. I'd better get up there." Harry raised his mug of tea in thanks and grabbed his chocolate muffin.

Harry made it back to the control room just as Elizabeth and the rest of the requested staff were starting to assemble. Harry took his seat next to Peter at the laptop next to the main console and balanced his tea as he pulled his tablet out of his bag. Harry pulled up the required programme and nodded to Peter that he could start.

Peter pulled up the self destruct program that had been designed, written and checked more times than Harry could count back on Earth. It was tied into the network, but was one of the most secure programmes on the entire system. It was connected to the naquadah generators so that they would explode once the self-destruct programme reached the end of its countdown.

Harry was finding it difficult to balance his tea, muffin and tablet, so he set his mug down on the flat surface at the back of the console so he didn't accidently knock it over. He put his muffin next to the mug and pulled his tablet closer to himself, so it was balanced against both his lap and the console.

Seeing that everyone who was required was now hovering behind him and Harry, Peter began talking as he entered the correct codes that he had set and memorised earlier. "The self destruct system requires two separate codes. Now each code is unique, and everyone here will be required to memorise their code."

"Well, don't bother giving me one." Peter gave Rodney a dark look and Rodney's expression became sheepish. "Sorry."

Harry rolled his eyes at Rodney's melodramatic antics and, reaching over and grabbing his mug, took a sip of the scalding liquid. Tapping away with just his left hand, Harry pulled up the activation program and gestured to the screen. "Peter and I went over the entire programme with the techs on Earth. We know it inside out and are just waiting to enter your individual codes. You can set them to be whatever you want, as long as you can recite it without thinking about it."

Elizabeth nodded and looked around at everyone gathered together around the console. "As far as we know, this is the only Stargate in the Pegasus galaxy which is capable of dialling Earth, which would make it the last line of defence against the Wraith. If they're going to attack - which we must consider a very real threat - we simply cannot let them gain control of this complex."

"If both codes are properly entered, the naquadah generator will overload. It will take thirty seconds." Peter gestured vaguely to the screen before him.

"You sure it'll do enough damage?" The marine that spoke was young, Harry guessed at no older than his mid-twenties. He had a sceptical look on his face as he raised an eyebrow at the two English men. Harry was about to answer, when Rodney got there first, annoyed that someone was questioning his handpicked department.

"Ever seen a twenty kiloton nuclear explosion?" Rodney's tone was derisive and annoyed. Harry had to hide a smirk, amused when the marine actually looked cowed by the Canadian. Harry had seen many a marine shrinking like a toddler caught with his hand in the cookie jar after a tongue-lashing from one Dr Rodney McKay.

"I have." Harry's gaze flicked towards the new head of the military forces on Atlantis. Harry hadn't actually personally interacted with the Major yet. He didn't exactly have much reason to. But from what he had heard, even the most rigid and staunchest supporters of the late Colonel Sumner couldn't deny that he was a good leader.

Seeing the looks he was receiving, Sheppard shrugged dismissively. "Not up close. Look, I think we should tell Teyla what's going on here."

"At this moment we still don't know if it was one of the Athosians who tipped off your arrival to their planet."

"I trust Teyla."

"So do I. But Teyla trusts her people. If we tell her, she'll want to tell them, and I need more time to get to know them." Elizabeth looked at Sheppard intensely, looking for confirmation that the pilot would do as she was requesting. Harry saw him hesitate for a moment before giving a small nod. Elizabeth seemed to let out a breath that she didn't even seem to notice that she had been holding. "Okay. So, Harry is going to be here and I need you all to enter your code for him."

Harry handed his tablet to Elizabeth with one hand and watched silently as she entered her own code. The tablet gave a small beep to indicate that the code had been accepted and locked in. Elizabeth handed the tablet to next person behind her and wandered off, giving Harry a nod and smile. Harry silently drank his tea, watching as the staff entered their codes one after the other. The tablet was finally passed over to Major Sheppard, who thoughtfully starred at the screen, seeming to try and decide what code he should enter.

Leaving the Major to decide, Harry turned to the British man next to him and found him rising to his feet. Raising an eyebrow in question at him, Harry set down his mug on the flat back of the console.

"The room allocation programme finished earlier – I've already sent all the information to the civilian staff and a couple of marines have already let all the military know where their rooms are. I just need to grab a few marines assigned to help me and let all the Athosians know where we have roomed them."

"Great, I've been looking forward to seeing where everyone will be placed. I'll check my allocation later and then go unpack when I get a chance. See you later." Harry watched at Peter marched away from the control room, his laptop tucked under his arm. His attention was brought back to the attention of the Airforce pilot next to him by a beeping sound and his tablet being waved in his direction.

Harry's face was carefully neutral as he accepted his tablet back, making sure that none of the annoyance he felt at the careless treatment of his equipment shown on his face. But Sheppard must have realised why his face became blank so suddenly and gave a sheepish smile.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to shake it about so much. I'm done entering my code now, thanks."

Harry was saved from having to make any kind of reply to the slightly expectant look on the Major's face by a hand reaching into his peripheral vision. Turning his head, he saw Nate stood behind the console, his hand trying to stealthily grab the muffin perched there. Harry's hand darted out seeker-fast and slapped Nate's grabbing fingers.

"Ow! Jesus Harry, did you have to hit so hard?" Nate pulled his hand back and shook his hand, trying to alleviate the sting. "And how the hell do you move so fast?"

Harry smirked at Nate, who glared back. Harry was just wondering how long it would take the marine to realised his CO was watching them with a smirk on his face, when Nate suddenly straightened up with a serious look on his face.

"Sir!"

"At ease." Sheppard gave a nod to both men and then walked away.

"Thanks for warning me he was right there Harry."

Harry's smirk widened as he reached over and pulled his muffin out of Nate's reach. "It serves you right for being such a cake thief. What do you want? I'm kinda busy right now."

Nate scowled at Harry and crossed his arms over his chest. "You can be so mean sometimes." Seeing that his words were only making Harry's grin become wider, he dropped the annoyed act. "I've come to make sure that you will be coming to train with us tonight. And to see what room you have been allocated."

Harry pulled up the room allocation listing that Peter had sent to his tablet and studied the map that was tagged with a mixture of scientist, marine and Athosian names. He quickly saw that Zack was down the end of the same corridor that his room was on, but Daniel and Nate were only a few rooms apart on the next level down from where his was. He turned his tablet around so that Nate could see the screen.

"I'm near Zack." Harry pointed out his room, allowing Nate to study it for a few more minutes. "And I will be able to meet you all in a couple of hours, after I've unpacked all my stuff in my room. That ok?"

Nate nodded, already turning around to leave. "That's fine. We've all had the last hour to unpack, so we're done. See you in the sparring room next to the gym."

* * *

><p>Harry set his box of personal belongings on the floor, feeling the door close softly behind him. He had collected the trunk from his lab, which was only a few floors above his room. He was glad that his room wasn't too far away from his personal lab because he knew he was going to be spending a lot of time in his lab once they started exploring other planets and the rest of the city.<p>

Looking around his room, Harry couldn't help but being surprised. The universe seemed to enjoying giving Harry bad luck and he had fully expected to be given the smallest and most cramped room available. But Harry had to admit that this time, the universe seemed to be making up for all the crap that fate had thrown at Harry over the years.

The room wasn't exceptionally large, but it was bigger than the room that Harry had had at the Dursleys'. It was slightly smaller than the dorm that Harry had spent five and a half years in at Hogwarts, but this room was all Harry's and he didn't have to share it with four other people. There was a slightly-larger-than-single bed on the left of the room which had small cabinets next to it and shelves above the bed, all in the strange metal that Atlantis seemed to be made of.

On the opposite side of the room, a metal desk was pushed against the wall with a padded chair tucked under it. There were more shelves above the desk. On the far side of the wall, next to the desk, two doors were closed side by side. Upon inspection, Harry found that one was a closet and the other opened into a good size bathroom.

But the best thing about the room by far that made up for its bareness was the window lined wall looking out onto the city. When Harry approached, he was delighted and surprised to find that the window in the middle was actually a glass door that opened out onto a small personal balcony. It was just starting to get dark, with the sun hanging low on the horizon, and the lights of the magnificent city were beginning to come on all over the many towers buildings of Atlantis.

After spending a few peaceful moments on the balcony, Harry sat himself down on the edge and managed to dangle his legs over the edge by fitting his legs under the lowest railing. He leaned forward with his arms crossed on top of the railings and rested his chin softly on his arms. A glint of metal caught his eye and he turned his head minutely to consider a ring on his middle right finger.

The ring was made of platinum and had intricate engravings all the way around it, leading to a square stone set into the band right in the middle. The stone looked like it was a black diamond, but it was actually a magically created stone. The entire ring was a custom piece made specifically for Harry. The magical community around the entire planet on Earth was going through a social and technological revolution. Part of that was moving into the future with how magic was cast.

Harry could cast wandless magic after years of training with some of the most powerful and knowledgeable wizards that the Resistance had to offer, but he still liked using a focus to cast everyday spells. Wands were awkward and very noticeable, which went against the Resistance's goal of better integration into the modern muggle world. The problem was finally solved when master wand makers and magical jewellers collaborated and it was decided as an entire community that rings would replace wands. Each ring was designed and created so it fit the person and their magic perfectly. No two were alike, although they all had the same symbol incorporated on the design. It was an international symbol that wizards had been using for centuries to help indentify each other.

All new wizards that were getting their first wand now got a ring made for them instead and some wizards had replaced their existing wands with the new rings. However, Harry – like almost all wizards – was attached to his wand and was loath to give it up. The ring makers had solved this problem by magically creating a compartment on the inside of the ring that was bigger on the inside. The wand was placed inside for safekeeping and the hole was sealed flawlessly. The rings were subtle, modern and much harder wearing than the old wooden wands. Multiple spells and enchantments were placed on the ring so that it was unbreakable and so it couldn't be removed by anyone except the person it was created for.

Harry pulled his mind out of its contemplative state and stood up. Thinking about his magic had made him realise just how much he missed using it. When he worked at the Pentagon, Harry had enjoyed using his magic for simple everyday things when at home. But once he started working on the expedition, he was incredibly limited when he could safely use his magic. He couldn't reveal the existence of magic or his people to anyone on the expedition without the permission of the international confederation of wizards.

Harry looked down at the long distance to the ocean below the central tower. He glanced behind him to make sure his door was closed firmly and then looked out over the sea once more. He cast a quick disillusionment spell so no one would pay attention to him. Without a further thought, Harry climbed up over the railing and allowed himself to drop.

He allowed himself to fall a few metres before forcing himself to change into his animagus form. It had been unsurprising when he had found out his form was a black eagle, although he didn't know that his animal form would still retain his bright emerald eyes. But, as McGonagall had said, an animagus form always reflected the most defining part of the person, which in Harry's case was his intensely coloured eyes.

Acutely aware that he didn't have as much time as he would like because anyone could come looking for him at any moment, Harry did a quick circuit of the many towers of the city, admiring the magnificent structure. He felt incredibly free, the stresses of both the day and the accumulation of all the stress that he hadn't yet managed to release from the War, just falling away for the short time that he was flexing his wings and gliding around the glistening towers and over the dark water.

Harry cast out his magic as he approached his balcony, making sure that he sensed no other presences in his room as he landed and swiftly transformed back to human form. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself from the high and adrenaline rush of flying. Smiling widely, Harry began to tidy his few possessions away.

The first thing Harry did was find a discreet panel to connect to so he could access power. He found it behind one of the tables next to the bed and thanked his continuing good look as he played around with the crystals, finally connecting his manmade crystal and wires to the Ancient system. Grabbing his backpack by the entrance, he pulled out a stand for his tablet and set it all up on the bedside table so that he could charge his tablet overnight and it would be in easy reach if he needed it quickly.

Harry got all his clothes put away in the closet, fitting the military issue box that held his personal belongings at the bottom. Having already emptied out the box, Harry took his diary (the one that was a gift from Elizabeth) and placed it on the other bedside table, shoving a few pens he had snagged on his way from his office next to it. Bounding over to the desk, Harry set up a spare laptop from his lap, finding another access panel to the crystal system so he could power the laptop. Once he was sure it was charging properly, he connected it to the wireless network he had spent so long setting up and then connected the external hard drive of music, movies and TV programmes that the science staff had given him for his birthday.

Harry looked around his room, trying to see what he had left to do. He glanced back at the bed and saw a small pile of stuff on it that had been there when he entered the room. Harry inspected what was placed there and found that it toiletries, towels and bed linen. Harry quickly shoved the toiletries on the shelves arranged around a mirror in the bathroom and put the towels on a railing he saw next to the shower. Entering the main room once again, Harry quickly and efficiently put the linen on the bed and arranged his pillow and blankets so it was neat and tidy.

Harry was just closing the door to the balcony and was closing the thin net-like curtains that were hung in the room, when his radio crackled and Elizabeth's voice sounded.

"I'm sorry to disturb you Harry, but I was wondering if you had time at some point this afternoon, would you check the screen in the secondary conference room?"

Harry tapped his radio as he waved his hand over the door lock. The door swished open almost silently. "No problem, Elizabeth. I'll head over now. It shouldn't take too long to sort it out."

Harry was already in the control room by the time Elizabeth relayed her thanks to him, so he wished her a good evening and entered the smaller conference room, the doors opening automatically for him before he got to them. Seeing the room empty, Harry walked around the square Ancient couches placed in front of the manmade screen on a stand in the centre of the room. He wandered around the back of the screen, occasionally reaching around to turn it on and check the screen.

It only took him a few minutes to find the problem and correct it. He was just switching the screen off and stepping around the screen, when he heard Rodney's voice coming towards him. Harry looked up and saw Rodney, Sheppard, the Athosian leader Teyla and a young Lieutenant called Ford, if Harry remembered correctly. He nodded at the others and addressed a still-cranky looking Rodney.

"You're in luck, Rodney, if you've come to use the screen. I've just got it fixed."

Rodney didn't answer and just nodded grumpily, so Ford took it upon himself to verbally answer Harry "Thanks. Major Sheppard is just about to show us a recording of a football game that he has if you wanted to stay."

Harry was confused for a moment, before realising that they were going to be watching an American football game. "Thank you for the offer, Lieutenant Ford, but I'm already running late for a meeting with some of my friends. Please, enjoy your game and let me know if you have any problems with the screen."

"Hey, you're going to be setting up a recreation room aren't you?" Rodney seemed to finally want to join the conversation.

Harry paused at the doorway and turned back to find four sets of eyes looking at him. "Yes. The room has been assigned now and the marines have pillaged dozens of sofas from somewhere. I've just got to get the screen hooked up to the power, attach the laptop and connect that to network so it can access the movies I have. Peter and Elizabeth have already planned what nights to have movie nights and what order we are going to play the films in." Harry gave a small smirk. "If I hadn't actually met General O'Neill, I would question how we managed to requisition such a large screen when space was a problem for this expedition."

"Yeah, well, you have met O'Neill, so you know what he is like." Rodney muttered in a surly tone.

Harry subtly glanced at his watch. "I really must go. I'm running quite late." Harry exited the room once he got an affirmative nod from Rodney.

* * *

><p>"So, your room ok?"<p>

Harry paused in his stretching, considering the marine before him. "Its good. I lucked out on the random allocation – I've got a mini balcony."

Nate gave a low whistle. "Nice. I've got a great view, but a balcony would be amazing."

Harry finished up his stretching and moved so he was stood in the centre of the sparring room. The room was brightly lit by artificial lights, but it had large stained glass windows that Harry knew would look impressive in the bright daylight. The floor was comprised of a strange pale wood-like material that felt like it was sprung when Harry bounced and rocked on the balls of his bare feet as he tested it.

Zack and Daniel finished up with their own warm-ups, closely followed by Nate. "So," Zack's voice was excited, looking forward to working off some of the excess energy everyone seemed to have had since arriving on Atlantis. "we gonna rotate around partners like normal?"

"Just watch Harry's injury." Daniel ignored Harry's scowl aimed at him. "No aiming for his head until it is all healed over."

Nate smirked suddenly. "Yeah, we should watch it. We don't want to have our hands melt or something because of Harry's strange blood."

Harry's scowl deepened as they all laughed at Nate's joke. "Oh, I'm gonna kick your arse for that." Nate's laughter faltered slightly when he saw the glare Harry was giving him.

It took Harry only a short time to floor all three of the marines, despite the intense training they had all received during their service time. But Harry had been doing intense martial arts training everyday for over two years during the War. The Resistance had allies from across the world as the secret War spread throughout the continents, and comrades came from all over to represent their forces in their home country. Various people practiced different kinds of martial arts and fighting styles and they took to practicing together. After a short while, Harry found himself learning a whole range of martial arts. He found it was a great way to vent his stress and he found it strangely relaxing.

"God, I think you may have bruised my ribs."

Harry took a swig out of his bottle of water and didn't reply to Zack's grousing. Daniel pulled himself to his feet and helped Zack stand up, grinning as Zack carefully held an arm protectively over his ribs and muttered his displeasure.

Nate grabbed his own water from his bag and leaned against the wall next to where Harry was perched on the minimally cushioned ledge in front of the tall windows. "Stop whining Zack. If you can't handle the training, you only need to tell us. We will go easy on you."

Zack glared at Nate. "I can handle it. I don't need you to 'go easy' on me. I'm a black belt in karate I'll have you know."

"Ok." Harry stood up and shoved the water bottle back in his bag and shoved it over his shoulder. He pulled his socks and trainers on and stood up, stretching his tired muscles. "Let's go to dinner before all of it is eaten."

Harry bound out the room, still feeling the buzz of energy he got after a good workout, particularly when he had managed to work all his stress and anxiety off. The mess hall wasn't empty, but the main rush had already had dinner and gone off to do a late shift of work or find something to do with their free time. Harry smiled at Matt as he got the vegetarian option and sat himself down at an empty table.

Nate and Zack were quick to join Harry at his table, but Daniel took a long time trying to decide what he wanted for dinner. Harry had never met anyone who was so fussy when it came to what he ate. Harry may be limited in what he could choose, because he couldn't bring himself to eat meat. Daniel's fussiness was a far cry from Ron, who would eat anything put in front of him.

Harry pulled his mind from his Hogwarts school memories, a small smile on his face, when he heard Carson's voice. Looking up, Harry saw that the Scottish doctor was placing his tray opposite Harry and was nodding to the marines around the table. Daniel chose that moment to bound over and sat himself next to the physician.

"How has your day been, lad?"

Harry took a bite of his pasta and smiled at Carson. "It's been ok. We managed to get a fair bit done in the control room today and are ahead of schedule so far. How's the infirmary? Got it all organised now?"

Carson carefully cut his chicken. "It's been good. All of my staff have been great and we've managed to get all of our equipment arranged and all of the stock sorted away into the supply rooms. I will admit that it has been a little bit boring really. I almost wish for a patient."

Harry grimaced slightly and lightly touched the small bandaged stuck over his cut. He had always been a fast healer and he had no doubt that it would be closed up completely in another day or two. But the plaster stuck to his forehead was still annoying and he found it difficult to not fiddle with it. "I'm sure that you will have patients soon enough. Some of the lab techs we have seem to be abnormally clumsy."

Carson smirked. "Aye. Some of them seem to have a nervous disposition, especially around Rodney."

"With the way Dr McKay is, I'm surprised more people don't have some form of nervous problem." Daniel snickered along with the other two marines.

"I wouldn't let comments like that get back to Rodney. I know for a fact that he can be vindictive." Carson cautioned.

Harry gave them a dark smile that made them paused in their laughter. "And don't forget the fact that he controls the entire city's systems, including environmental controls."

Carson laughed the scared look on the marines' faces as they looked around, trying to see if anyone had overheard them that would tell the snarky Canadian what they had said. "So, you lads just been doing some exercise?"

Harry glanced down at his sweats and t-shirt. "We were doing some sparring actually. You gotta practice to keep martial arts skills sharp."

Carson glanced at Harry's white bandaged head. "I hope you weren't working out too hard."

"Don't worry Doc, we didn't take any head shots." Zack swallowed the last of his chicken and salad. "Harry may have been injured, but that didn't stop him from beating us. Not bad for a science geek."

Harry scowled as everyone laughed. He finished up his food, said goodnight to everyone and headed to bed. He had no doubt that tomorrow would be a busy. Everyday was a busy day on Atlantis, and Harry had no doubt it would only get more exciting once regular offworld exploration and trade missions were scheduled.

* * *

><p>Harry was drifting in darkness, completely and utterly relaxed. He took deep breaths, in and out, letting his thoughts just drift in and out of his brain and trying to keep it clear. A light breeze ruffled his unruly black locks, but he barely notices. Going deeper into himself, he sought out the brightness he knew was a mental representation of his magical core. It wasn't real, but it helped the control of magic if it were imagined as a physical object to be used and controlled, almost as if it were another limb.<p>

Harry was just sinking into the glowing ball of his magic when a chirping noise broke into his consciousness. He would normally block out all the surrounding noises and distractions in order to gain total isolation and peace, but he had decided that on an alien city floating on an ocean in another galaxy, he would have to maintain some kind of alertness.

Harry sighed and opened his eyes as the chirping sound continued. He slowly rose to his feet and entered his room, softly closing the door to the balcony behind him. Aware that he was dressed in a pair of pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt, he arranged his face into a blank expression and silently opened the door to his room. Stood outside, looking anxiously up and down the corridor were two Athosians.

"Can I help you Teyla?" Harry saw the woman's eyes focus on him and glanced behind her to see that the other Athosian was a tall man on crutches, but Harry didn't know his name.

"I am most sorry to disturb you. I hope you were not sleeping." Teyla's voice was worried.

Seeing that the woman was not outside his room on a whim and that her anxiety was not limited to him possibly being annoyed that she had disturbed him, Harry took a step forward. "Is everything alright?"

"Jinto, Halling's son, is missing. We were wondering if you might have seen him?"

Harry looked between the two. "I'm sorry. I have not left my room since I got back from dinner and have spent my time meditating out on my personal balcony. I have not seen him."

Teyla looked downcast and Halling was beginning to look distraught. Harry opened his mouth to apologise once again that he couldn't be any more help when his radio crackled and Rodney's grumpy voice sounded in his ear.

"Harry, I need you to get to the control room. One of the Athosian kids is missing."

Harry tapped his radio. "Yeah, I'm just outside my room with Teyla and Halling now. I'm currently in my nightwear, so give me a few minutes to get changed and I'll be right up."

Rodney's voice was snarky. He was no doubt really starting to feel the loss of caffeine and was seemingly coming down hard. "Yeah, well I don't care what you are wearing. Just get up here."

Harry rolled his eyes, used to Rodney's grouchy behaviour and words. He turned to Teyla and Halling. "I really need to get up to the control room to help with this situation."

"We understand. Thank you." Teyla bowed her head and moved on down the corridor, Halling hobbling quickly after her.

Harry closed his door and rushed to his closet, pulling the first set of clothing he could find. It took him only moments, but he was wearing a pair of jeans and his wormhole xtreme fan t-shirt. Looking down, Harry contemplated that it wasn't his first choice of clothes for this situation, but he was officially off duty anyway, so who cared? He grabbed his converse and pulled them on with a pair of clean socks.

Grabbing his tablet and virtually jogging out of his room, Harry contemplated that it was starting to seem like there was no such thing as 'off duty' on Atlantis, and that everyone would just have to deal with him being in civilian and non-uniform clothing whenever a crisis hit in the middle of the night. They had only been here a few days, and Harry was already imagining his free time dwindling down to virtually nothing.

"What do you need me to do Rodney?" Harry gracefully halted next to the Canadian physicist, who barely spared his choice of clothing a glance.

"I want you to run a diagnostic on the sensors. There were a few fluctuations earlier and we need to know exactly what we have to work with right now."

Harry quickly seated himself in front of one of the side consoles in the control room and accessed the power distribution and monitoring system and the latest sensor readings. He was just pulling up the data from the entire day about the different naquadah generators and the sensor readout when Elizabeth passed in front of his console, heading for Rodney.

"Can we use the sensors to locate him?" Elizabeth's voice was anxious and worried, Harry noted as he loaded the relevant results from the diagnostic onto his tablet.

"We don't have nearly enough power to activate the whole city at one time." Rodney grimaced at his own answer. The data loaded onto his tablet, Harry stood and moved over so he was stood with Elizabeth and Rodney behind the console Peter was working on.

Seeing Elizabeth's disappointed look, Peter tried to offer more information that Rodney had given. "Even if we could, the sensors don't distinguish-" Peter paused, looking around as the lights flickered for a few moments. "individuals."

"For all we know, there could be shielded areas or, uh, malfunctioning sensors." Harry frowned and rechecked his data on the tablet clutched in his hands as the light flickered ominously again. "Harry, pull the energy distribution map up on the main screen." Harry selected the most recent data and shown it on the main screen, nodding to Rodney. "We are getting a pretty strange energy reading in one of the unexplored areas across the city." Rodney pointed out a flashing room indicated on the map as having energy fluctuations outside the normally acceptable range.

Elizabeth frowned, deep in thought for a moment, before turning to Rodney and Harry. "Activate the communications system."

Rodney pushed a short sequence of crystal button on the console, accessing the internal communication system. He nodded to Elizabeth and took a step back from the console. "Done."

"Jinto? This is Doctor Weir. If you can hear me, please respond. Jinto? If you're lost; if you can't ..."

Harry frowned as his tablet beeped and flashed a warning. He prodded the screen impatiently and glared as a new readout of the city's power consumption was brought to the front of the screen. He was about to tell Rodney that there was a huge fluctuation in the power when all of the main consoles went dark and the central lighting dimmed to emergency lighting only.

"We've lost power."

Harry rolled his eyes and resisted making a sarcastic comment to Peter about stating the obvious. Keeping his face blank and his tone neutral, he brought everyone's attention to his tablet.

"There have been power fluctuations for the last few hours, but what just happened was really strange. It's like there was a sudden massive drain on one or more of the generators, which shut down as part of their emergency protocols."

"We've still got lights." Rodney leaned closer to Harry as he looked at the readings on the brightly lit screen of the tablet. Harry was still feeling the effects of using his magic after so long of non-use and spending time meditating to connect to the part of himself that could instinctually manipulate and bend the energy around him to his will. Because of this, Harry could feel the energy of the field that surrounded Rodney, emanating from the glowing device attached to his chest. Harry was pulled from his contemplation when the screens and consoles flared back into life. Looking up, Harry saw Peter had manually turned them back on from the main console.

"Don't know why that happened." Peter leaned back from the console, confusion written across his face. Confusion turned to shock when the energy shield protecting the Stargate activated, casting a soft glow in the dim gateroom. Everyone in the control room and down in the gateroom turned and stared at the gate, before Elizabeth turned and stared at Peter. Peter raised his hands in self defence.

"That wasn't me!"

Before anyone could utter another word, the shield deactivated as suddenly as it had turned on. Rodney raised his hands also to show it wasn't him. He had a mild look of disbelief on his face as he traded looks with Elizabeth. Glancing at Peter to make sure that he was still stood away from the console, Rodney and Elizabeth turned as one to look at Harry.

"Come on, you seriously think I would mess around like that? I know how much energy that shield wastes. I'm not about to pull a stupid prank like this, especially not whilst a kid is missing."

"No, no, of course not Harry. We are just trying to work out what is going on." Elizabeth's voice was slightly sheepish and apologetic. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Harry never found out what she was going to say. A mechanical noise sounded as everyone turned as one to see that a random gate address had been lit up on the Stargate and that the inner ring was starting to spin. Elizabeth gaped in shock, before turning to the scientists stood next to her. "Shut it down. Now."

Both Peter and Rodney rushed forward to the dialling console, but Rodney got there first and whacked the shutdown button.

"What the hell is going on?" Harry looked over and saw a controlled Elizabeth, but he could tell she was starting to become incredibly worried but she didn't want everyone to know.

"I don't know." Rodney's tone was frustrated.

"Nothing like this has happened before."

"We've only been here for a couple of days. This stuff is pretty old. It's that, or there really are ghosts." Rodney glared at Peter, seeming to have decided which of his 'minions' would face the brunt of his annoyance and frustration.

Harry was saved from hearing any kind of argument between the Canadian and the British man when the lights went out again. Harry frowned in the dark and checked his tablet once again. "It's not just the control room that has lost power this time. The entire central tower has gone dark."

"Can you get it back up and running?"

Harry shared a glance with Rodney, but his reply was interrupted when his radio crackled into life. It was the general channel being used and could be heard by everyone wearing a radio. It was decided before they left Earth that they would have different radio channels for various different things and then have a general channel for messages to everyone.

"Control Room, this is Sheppard. Lights just went out."

"Major, we're experiencing some technical malfunctions." Elizabeth paused and looked at Rodney, Peter and Harry all bent over the central console with their laptops and tablets. "We are working to sort it all out."

Harry looked up as Elizabeth came over to them after talking to Sheppard over the radio. Because it was a general, all-purpose channel, it broadcast to everyone's radio and everyone could hear the conversations over it. Harry had heard Elizabeth reassure the Major that they would be able to sort the problem out as soon as possible.

"So, any ideas on how to fix this?" Elizabeth's tone was both hopeful and assured that they would be able to do it. Harry leaned back against the console so he could grip his tablet more securely and continued going over the readings. Seeing that they were starting to increase and level out, he accessed the manual power distribution system. A few moments later and the lights burst into life.

"Good job."

Harry shook his head. "I've only turned the lights back on. We still have not idea why they went off in the first place."

"It could have something to do with the interfaces between our naquadah generators and the city. Or that or the way we isolated certain systems could be causing erroneous operations in the Ancient programming." Rodney had a thoughtful look on his face as he waved an energy bar around. Harry shook his head at the sight – Rodney was keeping that damn bar on him at all times just in case the shield came off and he could stuff his face with food once more.

"I'll run a diagnostic on the power flow."

Harry snapped back to attention. "I've already run diagnostics. However, I'm just the computer guy – the actual science of how all this stuff works and how the power is generated is beyond me."

"Don't sell yourself short Harry. I've seen the IQ test results in your file from the Pentagon." Harry looked away in embarrassment, his face carefully neutral. He wasn't used to receiving praise for something like his intelligence. Praise and reverence for being a good soldier and saviour, but not for something that actually meant something to him. Elizabeth, knowing that Harry didn't like to discuss personal stuff in public, turned to Rodney. "I wouldn't have thought you believed in ghosts."

"I never used to, then I heard about things called Wraiths that can suck the life out of you with their hands. What the hell is that?" Rodney waved his hand around for a moment to emphasis his point.

Harry heard a voice calling Elizabeth from the top of the gateroom stairs. Elizabeth turned and gave the Athosians waiting there a tight smile. "Teyla. I'll be right there." She turned her head to look at the three men before her. "Do what you can."

Rodney ran a hand through his short hair. "Right."

Harry took a seat on one of the chairs that had been dragged over to the console that Peter was now sat behind. Rodney sighed and threw himself into the last empty seat on the other side of the console. Harry observed him for a moment. He was confident that no matter what the problem was, Rodney would pull some crazy solution out of the bag. Harry had seen his intelligence and genius first hand whilst at the base in Antarctica and the SGC. And he had heard enough stories about Rodney from his time at Area 51 and in Russia to know that he may annoy people, but he had their grudging respect for some of the stuff he had done.

"So, first we encounter space vampires and now the city is revolting against us. Could this week get any worst?"

Rodney and Peter both gave Harry dark looks. "Don't say that. You'll jinx us."

Rodney gave a distinctly sarcastic smirk and a derisive snort and was about to reply with what would have been no doubt a snarky and cutting response, when Elizabeth came back into the control room.

"One of the Athosians saw a 'shadow'. Although Teyla says that she senses no wraith, we still need to be cautious. We should assume that there has been a possible wraith incursion on Atlantis."

"See, I told you that you would jinx it."

Elizabeth looked from Englishman to Canadian to Englishman, confusion written across her face.

"Harry was wondering how it could get worst and apparently jinxed us. Now we see how it could get worst."

"Yeah, space vampires running around Atlantis, just waiting to pounce out of the shadows and suck the life out of us." Harry muttered before smiling brightly. "Oh well. Let's get to work then."

* * *

><p>Harry stifled a yawn and hid it behind his hand. It was the early hours of the morning and Harry was longing to go to bed. He had now been away almost 24 hours, considering that he had got up to go jogging yesterday morning. Of course, it didn't even come close some of the periods of time during the War when Harry had been awake for days at a time. But they had used stimulating potions during most extreme times and Harry had at least had the opportunity to do some meditation.<p>

"Hey." Harry turned around at the sound and saw that Lieutenant Barlow was stood behind him holding a tray of mugs. "I know everyone up here is working hard to solve the current problem. So, I've brought you all some drinks and snacks."

Harry accepted the mug of strong tea and took a grateful sip. "Thanks Matt. I really needed this."

Matt passed the tray to another marine behind him, who started to distribute the hot drinks to the scientists and techs in the control room. Harry looked over Matt's shoulder and saw Rodney glare murderously at the marine as he moved onto the next person with the tray. Matt swung a large backpack off his shoulder and dug around inside it. He pulled out a bottle of water, and energy bar and bar of chocolate.

"Here you go. This should keep you going for a while. I'm going to set up a table in the mess with quick and high energy snacks if you need anything else. I better get on and make sure everyone here gets something. We're all counting on you lot to save the day." Matt gave Harry a wink and slipped him a second chocolate bar, moving away to distribute his bag of goodies to the others.

Harry was finishing off his energy bar and tea when Teyla and Elizabeth came out of her office. Teyla wandered past Harry to look over the balcony at the Stargate and Elizabeth stopped behind the console Harry was sat next to.

"How's it going?"

Rodney had come over, a glum look on his face as he clutched his ever-present energy bar. "We've been working nonstop for the last few hours, trying to find out what is going on."

"No matter what diagnostic we run, it keeps coming back to the fact that we have no idea why the system is doing this." Harry saw the look Elizabeth was giving them and hurried to explain their lack of progress. "As far as we can see, all our own systems are running normally and the tests we have run on the Ancient systems show no errors." Harry took a bite of his chocolate bar, savouring the taste and sugar rush. "I even crawled into the ridiculously small space in the main console to check our connection. It is fine."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means," Rodney huffed in frustration. "that all of the systems are running well within the acceptable range. There has to be something else, something external, which is affecting the systems."

Major Sheppard and Halling came up the stairs and entered the control room. Harry finished off his chocolate, already feeling the rush of energy it gave him, and watched at Halling hobbled over to Teyla by the windows looking down on the gateroom. Sheppard stopped his march in front of where Rodney and Elizabeth were stood next to the console Harry had set himself up on.

"I've secured access to the Control Tower and living quarters."

Elizabeth nodded in approval. Her voice was low so that it didn't carry across the room to all the working techs and scientists. "Two more Athosians reported seeing a shadow."

"Now, I don't get that. That means the Wraith would be here." Sheppard's normally easy going expression was marred by a frown.

"You don't think so?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think they want to scare us. When they decide to come, they're going to start blowing the crap out of this place with their ships."

"So what, the Athosians are just seeing things?"

"Well, like Teyla said, it's a scary place for them."

"Not just for them." Rodney muttered.

Harry grinned. "What, is the great Dr Rodney McKay scared of the big, dark, abandoned city? You think a ghost is going to jump out at you?"

Rodney scowled. "No! I'm more worried that a 'space vampire', as you have named them, will jump out, grope me and sucking out my life."

Harry's smirk deepened and he shook his head. Teyla came over and interrupted before anyone else could rib Rodney. She nodded to the three men and turned to Elizabeth, indicating to Halling by her side.

"Halling wishes to speak with Jinto."

Elizabeth looked at Halling for a moment, but seeing the determined look in his eyes and sensing the slightly desperate air about him, she nodded. "Please."

Halling hobbled around Harry where he was sat at the console and Rodney leaned over and rapidly tapped the correct sequence of buttons to access the communications system. They had spent hours working on the systems, and Harry was sure any one of them could select the correct sequence in their sleep.

Rodney pressed the final crystal button and turned to the tall Athosian man. "Go ahead."

"Jinto. If you can hear me, I'm not angry. I just want to know that you are safe. So if you are lost or hurt, stay where you are. Make some noise if you can. We will find you." Halling carefully leaned the crutches against the console and raised his joined hands up above his head and closed his eyes. "Pere lume tempo e teri."

"Is that Latin?" Sheppard muttered to Elizabeth, voice low so that it didn't carry across the room, but Harry was close enough hear him.

Elizabeth blinked and listened more closely to Halling's words. "It's Ancient."

Harry tilted his head and concentrated on the words. He took a moment to translate it. "Fathers of light of the everlasting temple." Seeing everyone turn to stare at him, he shrugged self-consciously. "I learnt to read and write Ancient before I even started to work at the base on Antarctica. But Dr Jackson spent some time teaching me to speak Ancient."

Elizabeth nodded. "Whilst we have managed to teach a small number of people to read Ancient, it is a difficult language to learn how to speak. Harry is a genius with patterns and picked up the written language very fast, so it was decided by Dr Jackson that he should be taught to speak Ancient as well. He learnt it remarkably fast."

Harry kept his expression blank to hide his embarrassment. He was saved from replying to the expectant looks by Teyla's explanation of Halling's words.

"It is a prayer to the Ancestors."

Halling opened his eyes and raised his hands higher. Harry was never one to judge others' religious beliefs, but he had read the brief file on the Ancients that was one of the required reads before the left Earth, and Harry saw that they were just like humans in many ways. Harry couldn't help but draw parallels between the Ancients and wizards. Wizards, like Ancients, were more biologically advanced than humans. But the difference between wizards and Ancients was that wizards halted their social and technological advancement at some point during the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Very few advancements were made – the most recent one was the introduction of muggle radio. Ancients embraced advancements and developments. Harry wondered where the magical world would be now if their society had been stagnant and unchangeable for the last few centuries. Harry was just glad that his people were now going through a massive and rapid revolution.

"If you are angry that we have unrightfully inhabited your great city, we humbly apologise. We mean no harm. We will leave if it is your wish. But I will not go without my son."

As Halling finished his speech and lowered his hands, the lights suddenly went out, casting the room into utter darkness. There was silence for a few moments, before it was broken was an odd thud. Harry groped around on the console behind him and found his tablet. Pressing a button on the side, the screen burst into life in a blaze of light, making Harry blink. Clearing his gaze, Harry accessed the power systems. Hedging his bets, Harry switched the primary power for the control room from generator to generator until the lights flickers back on.

Harry stood up as the lights lit up the room and headed towards where Elizabeth had wandered to. She was stood looking at Halling, who was staring at the ceiling in wonder. Harry ignored the reverent Athosian. He seriously doubted the Ancients were spending their ascended time messing around with them by flicking the lights on and off. Harry stepped around Peter and saw that Rodney was on the floor, unconscious. The thud must have been from Rodney hitting the floor.

Sheppard kneeled next to the physicist and checked him for a pulse. His worried expression mostly cleared. "He's ok." Sheppard tapped his radio." Dr Beckett, Rodney has collapsed in the control room. We need a med team."

Seeing that the Canadian was starting to come around, Elizabeth turned to the other techs and scientist hovering around the control room. "I want to know what is going on around here."

Harry nodded when Elizabeth met his gaze, an expectant look evident. He dragged his gaze from his snarky boss, who was now arguing with Carson about needing to go to the infirmary and being forced to get on the gurney, and wandered back to the main console, where Peter was setting up his laptop.

"I managed to get the lights back on by changing which generator was the primary source of power for the control room. Could you pull up the most recent readings from our generators please?"

Peter pulled up the reading quickly. Both he and Harry studied them for a moment, before frowning as one. "Are you seeing this?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, that makes no sense."

"So, do you have a plan to work out what is going on?" Elizabeth had wandered over now that Rodney had finally been escorted to the infirmary by an insistent Carson and a firm Major Sheppard. "I know it is hopeful of me to assume that you have managed to get anything done in the last few minutes."

"Actually, we have accessed the power systems." Peter pulled up the readings on the main screen.

"What am I looking at here?"

Harry smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." Harry pointed out the section Elizabeth should be looking at. "The generator that is the primary source of power for the control room experienced a sudden drain of power, causing it to shut off as a safety protocol. It was offline for a few minutes whilst it was experiencing the drain, before it suddenly came back online. Right now, we have no idea why the drain happened."

"We need to go and inspect the generator. That might shed some light on what the cause of the problem is." Peter suggested.

"Right. You two get down there. Let me know what you find."

* * *

><p>"Why do I have to be the one that is always climbing under the consoles?"<p>

Peter grinned at Harry as they stood by the generator. "You are the computer expert here. So, you get the privilege of squeezing inside the console."

Harry grumbled some more, but accepted what Peter was saying. He was the expert on computers and technology on Atlantis, and so it was his job to check and maintain the connections between the Earth manmade technology and the alien Ancient technology. But that didn't mean he liked squeezing his six foot odd frame under the console. He may have been able to easily fit under a few years ago, when he was still skinny and short. But regular meals for the last few years and intense physical training had made Harry go through a growth spurt and develop lean muscles.

"Fine fine. You are right. I am being paid to do this." Harry pried open the side panel on the console and passed Peter his tablet for safekeeping. He squeezed and wiggled his way inside the console so his was half in, up to just past his shoulders. Twisting so he was on his back, Harry shifted forward so he had room to move his arms.

"It looks good here." Harry pulled at the connection before removing the interface crystal that connected the naquadah generator and the Ancient system. Holding the crystal close to his face, he inspected it. "The interface crystal looks ok. There is no damage or evident physical anomalies. Pass me my tablet, please, so that I can check it properly."

Peter passed the tablet through the small gap available and Harry shifted around to make room so he could firmly hold his tablet and see the screen. He connected the crystal interface to his tablet and ran a quick diagnostic. "The crystal is fine. We need to check the generator itself."

Harry reattached the crystal to the console, slipping it into the right slot among the array of glowing crystals. Harry manoeuvred his way past the crystals. He was just pulling himself out of the console, when his tablet slipped out of his grip. Grabbing at it automatically, Harry raised his head without thinking about it. He was not completely out of the console, however, and caught his head on the edge of the opening of the access panel. He caught his tablet, but at the cost of whacking the same area on his head that he had bashed against the console when the city rose from the depths of the ocean.

"Damn it." Harry stood carefully, shoving his tablet under his arm so he wouldn't drop it again. His head began to throb. "This city is out to kill me, I swear. I'm never normally clumsy."

Peter stepped closer, looking at Harry's head. "It's bleeding again. It hasn't come through the bandage, but it is starting to stain it. You should head up to the infirmary." Peter indicated the generator next to Harry. "I'll check the generator."

"Ok." Harry probed around the edge of the bandage and winced as the wound gave an angry throb. "I'll get it checked and see you up in the control room."

Harry left Peter checking the naquadah generator and slowly made his way to the infirmary. He was no stranger to making visits to infirmaries and hospitals. He had suffered numerous injuries when he was a child under the Dursleys' care, had spent time in the hospital wing at Hogwarts and had been injured many times during the War. But he still disliked hospitals intensely. Harry was contemplating his dislike of all things medical, when Sheppard passed him in the corridor outside the infirmary.

Harry assumed that Rodney was ok, because he knew that he and Sheppard had started some kind of strange friendship. Sheppard wouldn't leave him alone in the infirmary if there was something wrong with the cranky Canadian. Entering the room, Harry saw Carson stood next to a bed where Rodney was sat, a grumpy expression on his face. Carson was glaring at Rodney as he snarked about something or the other. Hearing footsteps coming up behind him, the Scottish doctor turned around.

"Harry." Carson smiled at him, before his eyes zeroed in on the blooded bandage on Harry's forehead. His smile turned into a frown. "What have you done to yourself now, lad?"

Harry pulled himself up onto the bed opposite Rodney and laid his tablet down at the foot end of it. "I hit my head on an access panel whilst checking one of the naquadah generators."

Carson huffed, before pulling on some rubber gloves. He carefully removed the old bandage, probing the area gently. Harry winced as his fingers skimmed over the open wound. Carson scowled down at him. "You got away with paper stitches last time, but it's opened too much this time. I'm going to have to put in a few real stitches."

Carson bustled off to get equipment to stitch Harry's head up and Harry looked over to find Rodney watching him. "You ok, Rodney?"

Rodney huffed. "I just passed out from manly hunger and low blood sugar. I need to get back to work, if the voodoo witch doctors would let me leave."

Carson came back with a steel tray of stitching equipment and laid it down on the table beside Harry's bed. "You're free to leave now Rodney." Carson rolled his eyes as Rodney bounded off the bed and out the door without a backwards glance. Harry winced when Carson numbed the area around the cut and began to prepare the needle.

"How do you keep getting in these situations? I don't remember you been treated at all when we were at the base in Antarctica or at the SGC."

Harry held his head still as Carson began to carefully stitch the wound closed. "That's because I never did have to visit the infirmary, unless it was to see if you wanted to grab some lunch or for the required physicals."

"Well, as much as I enjoy your company, Harry, I would much prefer to not see you for medical treatment for at least a long time – preferably never."

"I'll try my best Carson." Harry gave the Scot a brief grin as he finished up the stitches and stuck a small bandage over the top.

"Right, I'm done." Carson stripped off his gloves and started to clear his equipment away. "I want you back in a few days so I can check and see how it is healing. I know you aren't going to stop working because we are in the middle of a crisis, but try to take it easy at least a little bit."

"Not a problem Carson. I'll be fine."

Harry was riffling through his pockets as he bound up the stairs in front of the gate to the control room, and was rewarded with a chocolate bar. Grinning in happiness at his discovery of the sugary treat, he opened it and took a large bite. Chewing happily, he threw himself into a chair next to Peter, who looked at him questioningly.

"I'm ok." Harry answered Peter's unasked question. "But I got real stitches this time. What did you find from checking the generator?"

Peter opened his mouth to reply, when Sheppard's sounded next to the. Turning, Harry saw Sheppard, Elizabeth and Rodney, discussing the current situation. "Didn't look like the phantoms the Wraith make you see but I could see how the Athosians would be confused."

"What did it look like?" Elizabeth looked confused.

"It looked like a..." Sheppard gave a vague gesture with his hands, before looking over at Peter.

"Darkness." Peter interjected helpfully. "It surrounded the naquadah generator and started to grow, like it was feeding off the energy."

"Whoa. Hold on." Harry looked around the group in question. "What did I miss?"

"There seems to be some kind of energy cloud in the city that is affecting our power." Elizabeth's gaze moved up to Harry's head. "Peter mentioned you were injured again."

"Yeah, I hit my head and reopened the cut. Carson put some stitches in for me." Harry shrugged dismissively. "So this energy cloud was what caused the problem with the generators? It was attracted to the power?"

"Yeah, and when they shut it down, the whole ... whatever it was, it just went away."

"If this thing feeds on energy we could be in big trouble - and when I say we, I mean you because I won't actually be around for much longer." Everyone simply ignored Rodney's last comment, now used to his melodramatic comments.

"So we need to figure out exactly what it is and what to do about it." Elizabeth looked considerate. "How about shutting down the generators?"

Harry shook his head. "Not a good idea."

Rodney looked at Harry and explained to the others. "Well, uh, people also give off heat energy. But, now, granted it's negligible compared to that of the naquadah generator but, uh, you take away this thing's only other obvious source of food and ..."

"You're saying it could come after us." Elizabeth's voice was worried and slightly disbelieving.

"Well, I only know one thing for sure, and that is that flying darkness that needs energy can only be very, very bad."

"I don't know which is worst – space vampires or a floating vampire cloud." Harry muttered, chewing the last of his chocolate bar.

"OK. We keep the power on. Grodin and Harry figure out a way to detect it, and in the meantime, Major, establish a constant surveillance on all the generators. If one of them is targeted, we'll shut it down remotely and hopefully we can keep this ... thing busy until we can figure out a way to get rid of it." Elizabeth tapped her radio, accessing the internal communication system. Her voice came out of the speakers across the entire control tower. "Attention, everyone, this is Weir. For the time being, we need you all to remain in your quarters unless otherwise instructed. If you see anything out ..."

"Hello? Can you hear me? Can anyone hear me?" Elizabeth was interrupted by a child's voice over the speakers.

"Jinto?" Harry resisted rolling his eyes as Sheppard actually looked around, as though Jinto would pop out from behind a console or something.

"Major Sheppard!"

"Are you OK?" Elizabeth gave a relieved smile.

"I'm scared."

Elizabeth turned to Harry. "Can you find him?"

Harry shook his head. "Not with all the conflicting readings we are getting from fluctuations in the power systems. We can't trust any readings we do get. And we haven't got the sensors working yet."

Elizabeth sighed but nodded in understanding. "Jinto, start from the beginning. Tell us how you got to where you are."

"I was in the hall outside my quarters."

Sheppard and Rodney hurried out of the control room and down the gateroom stairs. Elizabeth made to follow them, before stopping and looking back at Peter and Harry. "Work on those sensors."

* * *

><p>It had taken a while, but Harry and Peter had final managed to track the entity that was reaping havoc on their systems. They had started by accessing the maps of the control tower and isolating the area that they were occupying. It was then a matter of instructing the system to recognise their own naquadah power source instead of the standard ZPMs the Ancients used. The most difficult part was calibrating the systems to recognise and differentiate between different kinds of life forms.<p>

Peter was currently sat at a cleared console with his laptop open before him, running the programme he and Harry had just finished perfecting. It showed the generators as blue glowing point of light. The dark entity was shown by the system to be a ball of red light moving through the hallways between the power sources.

"How's it going?"

Harry raised his head from where he was slumped over his tablet, one hand tapping away as he made sure the systems restarted with no problems as the generators were shut off and then turned back on when the entity moved on towards the next power source. In his other hand, he was clutching an almost finished sandwich. Harry couldn't for a hot meal once this damn crisis was over. He stuffed the last of his food into his mouth as Peter explained the work they had done.

"As far as we can tell, there's only one entity. Now, the bright blue spots are the active naquadah generators." Peter pointed out the floating red light as Harry moved to stand behind him with Elizabeth. "This blob is our entity. It was just a matter of calibrating the sensors. Your idea is working. So far we've been able to anticipate its approach to the active generators and shut them off remotely. Here, watch." The entity was almost at one of the generators, so Peter inputted a few commands, shutting it down. The red light hovered for a moment, before moving off in the direction of the next closest naquadah power source. "Got it running in circles."

"Good job." Elizabeth nodded. "Both of you."

"Thanks." Peter smiled at Elizabeth and Harry silently nodded in acknowledgement.

"I hope we're not making this thing mad."

Peter nodded his agreement. Harry cracked open his bottle of water. "I hope so as well. A floating cloud of angry darkness can never be a good thing." Harry glanced back at the screen. "Peter, the entity is heading straight towards a patrol."

Peter activated his comm. Radio. "Lieutenant. This is Doctor Grodin. I'm tracking the entity heading your way." Harry leaned around the other Brit and zoomed in on the area the entity was travelling through. White dots appeared, indicating two human life forms, with the red light heading directly towards them. Peter's frown deepened. "You might want to get out of the hall you're standing in."

Ford's voice came over radio. "Roger that." It was a tense few moments as they watched the white dots on the screen move down the corridors. They came to a sudden stop. "Uh, this is Ford. A bulkhead just blocked our way. There's no panel on the wall or any way to open it that we can see."

"Roger that." Peter turned to look at Harry.

"It wasn't me."

Elizabeth moved to the side and worriedly tapped her radio. "McKay?"

"We didn't touch anything. It could be the entity causing random malfunctions. The proximity to that large an energy disturbance could cause the Ancient technology to-to go haywire."

Harry picked up his tablet from where it was resting on the console and accessed the sensor readings that were currently displayed on Peter's laptop. He tracked the path of the dark entity and pointed out an alternative route for the marines to take to Elizabeth.

"Lieutenant, double back and try the door on the east side of the hall."

"This door won't open either." Ford's voice was carefully controlled, but Harry could hear the slight edge of panic. However, all the marines on the expedition were highly trained and Harry knew Ford and Stackhouse wouldn't allow their feelings overrule their logic.

"Pull open the console in the wall." Rodney's voice suddenly came over the radio.

"What next?"

"I'm not sure. What do you see?"

"Three crystals." Ford was short and to the point.

"Take out the middle one and move the top one down."

It was a tense second whilst Ford tried Rodney's tentative suggestion. "Not working."

An idea occurred to Harry. "Rodney, if the crystals were shorted out, then the safety protocols may take over and open the door."

"OK, use the middle one to bridge the two others."

"You guys sure about this?"

"Not exactly." Rodney replied at the same time as Harry said, "Nope."

Harry turned his attention back to his tablet and saw a message flash up as the circuit in the door panel shorted out. He let out a breath in relief, but seemed to be reassured too soon as screams came over the radios. He closed his eyes to calm himself as the others around him gasped in shock. He vaguely heard the marine that was with Ford, Stackhouse, call for a medical team.

"Right." Elizabeth caught hear breath and steadied herself. "We need to solve this before it escalates and more people get hurt."

"Harry." Rodney's voice was once again snarky. "I've sent some marines to escort you down to the lab. I need you to help us access the research database and translate some of the technical Ancient words that are proving to be difficult."

"Right. I'll be there soon." Harry grabbed his laptop and gathered together his backpack, ensuring all his bits and pieces of equipment that he may need were in his bag. He was just closing up his bag after stuffing in a few energy bars, chocolate bars and a bottle of water that Matt had left for them all hours ago.

"You ready to go Harry?"

Harry turned around and saw Nate, Daniel and Zack stood behind him, wearing their full kit and toting guns. Harry eyed them for a moment. "Why do I need an armed marine escort ordered to take me down to a lab?"

Nate looked serious, which was unusual for the normally jovial man. "We volunteered when Dr McKay mentioned that he wanted you down in the lab. To make sure you are ok – especially after Ford got singed by that thing."

"Ok." Harry slung his shoulder and marched down the gateroom stairs towards the newly discovered transporter. The three marines hurried to catch up and put themselves into formation so that they surrounded Harry protectively. "You guys didn't need to do this you know."

Zack glanced back at Harry from where he was taking point. "We know. But you are our friend and we wanted to be completely certain that you would be safe."

Harry merely nodded, touched that they wanted to keep him safe. It was completely unnecessary – Harry had been on the frontline as the primary target during the War and was a highly trained wizard. He didn't need marines with guns to protect him from a cloud of energy-sucking darkness. But Harry hadn't had someone, let alone a group of people, who were willing to put their life on the line for him as a person since he had become friends with Hermione and the Weasleys. There were plenty of people who would have, and still would, willingly risk their own life or even die for Lord Harold James Evan Potter-Black, the Saviour.

The ragtag group reached the transporter and crammed themselves in. Harry watched with fascination as a panel slipped open on the wall once they had all entered. Daniel rolled his eyes at Harry's excitement and chose a flashing circle that was on the other end of the city. "You can study it later Harry. Right now, you and the other eggheads need to solve our current crisis."

Harry was about to make a snarky response that would have been worthy of Rodney, when the transporter doors reopened and the said Canadian started to order Harry around before he had even stepped into the lab.

* * *

><p>"Do you have the entire translation?"<p>

Harry glanced up from his tablet to where Rodney was stood next to his chair at a research console. "Yeah, I've finished up the translation of the research that is indicated for the device. I've sent it to your tablet."

Rodney grabbed his own tablet from where he had dumped it in favour of the Ancient console a while ago and found the information Harry had sent to him. Harry continued to explain as Rodney perused the information. "The device is what you thought it was – the missing words you needed me to translate confirm it."

Rodney still had his face buried in his tablet, when the transporter doors opened and Sheppard and Elizabeth stepped out, the marines moving out of their defensive positions to allow them further into the room. They came over to the research console that Harry and Rodney had been working at for the last hour.

"Apparently it's also an elevator." Sheppard pointed over his shoulder at the transporter in glee.

"Really?" Rodney finally pulled his head out of the tablet at that piece of interesting information.

"We can stop taking the stairs everywhere."

"Oh, how nice for you all." Rodney just couldn't help the sarcasm sometimes. Harry was sure he didn't even know how snarky he was sometimes.

"What have you got?"

"Well believe it or not, Jinto didn't touch anything of any consequence other than that. It must have its own power source like the, uh, Jumpers." Rodney pointed to the device mounted next to the research console, and they all wandered over to it, except Harry, who remained seated. He merely turned around in his chair and leaned back against the console, watching as Rodney explained their findings to them. Nate, Zack and Daniel, who had been loitering near the transporter doors with nothing much to do for the last hour, edged closer in interest as Rodney's loud voice carried across the room.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's some sort of containment vessel for the energy creature."

"And Jinto released it."

"Well, it seems that way. As I suggested, the entity's what's been causing most of our technical problems. Now, it was captured for observation. The Ancients were researching ascension."

"Really?" Elizabeth looked at the device closely, the amazement obvious in her facial expression of wonder.

"What exactly is ascension?" Harry was wondering the same thing. He had, of course, read the required file on the background of the Ancient. But that file only mentioned that they had ascended, and not really explained what that had meant.

"Well at some point during their evolution the Ancients reached a... uh, an advanced stage of being where they were able to rid themselves of their physical bodies and rise to a higher plane of existence, one in which they-they live as pure energy. Well, I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is the first indication that there may have been evolutionary intervention to get there."

Harry blinked and looked at the device. From the brief file on the original occupants of Atlantis, Harry knew that some of the Ancients had mental powers, varying from healing to telekinesis. But Harry also knew that their powers weren't even close to what wizards could do. Harry wondered if his own people would soon be working towards ascension, now that they were going through a technological and social revolution. It was a mind boggling concept, and Harry had to shake his head and get back to the current crisis at hand. He focused once more and found that the conversation had moved on.

"- according to the research it is sentient but if-if you're thinking about trying to talk to it, you'd have more luck with a Great White shark. This thing is going to suck the power out of our generators and then it will kill us all."

"Alright, what do we do about it?"

"The entity's been trapped in here since before the Ancients abandoned the city."

"I know I'd be pissed."

"And hungry. The point is, this device was designed to attract it, capture it and hold it for observation. There's still a chance we may be able to get it back inside. I'm just gonna need a little more time to figure out how."

Sheppard and Weir finished up their conversation with Rodney over the device and finally left via the transporter, still discussing the entity and Ancient ascension. Rodney went over to the other side of the room to use another research console and screen. Nate pulled a seat up next to Harry and Daniel and Zack leaned against the side of the console.

"Great." Daniel's voice was dry. "A floating cloud of energy intent on sucking us all dry. Not exactly what I signed up for."

"Well, you didn't sign up for space aliens either, but they've made an appearance as well."

"How could the Ancients just leave that thing trapped here?" Nate shook his head. "That's like moving house and leaving your dog behind."

"The Ancients being bad pet owners is the least of our worries." Harry turned in his seat and started to work again. "I mean, who knows what else they have locked up in this city."

* * *

><p>"Rodney, seriously, could you stop dropping crumbs on me?"<p>

Harry swiped his hand over the screen of his tablet, slightly irritated with the Canadian physicist stood behind him. Rodney's device had fallen off about an hour ago and he was taking the opportunity to stuff his face with as much food as possible. They were currently situated in the control room, preparing to implement Rodney's plan of trying to trap the creature in the original containment device.

Rodney huffed, but otherwise ignored Harry's comment. "We ready?"

"You do realise that when we shut everything down, we're going to lose the sensors. We're not going to be able to track it." Peter and Harry had discussed this problem shortly before, but they couldn't find another way around the problem.

"We have security personnel posted around the living quarters. At least we'll have some warning. Teyla told the Athosian children that lighting a candle would help protect them." Elizabeth lit the candle with the lighter she pulled from her pocket and rested it carefully in the console, making sure the freshly melted wax didn't spill.

"And you're doing it because ...?" Rodney's voice was derisive and slightly muffled from the food he had just stuffed in.

"It's gonna get dark in here."

"Hmm." Rodney shifted the black object under his arm and pushed a button on its side, making a clicking noise and light burst from the end. Rodney waved it slightly, a triumphant sound coming from him.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Rodney's arrogant antics, but they were all used to the way the Canadian was. "OK, Major. Go ahead." Elizabeth gave Sheppard a second to turn the device on, before turning to Peter. "Now."

Peter looked at the candle in front of him on the console, before swallowing nervously. "Shutting down power."

Peter manually shut down all five generators and they all watched as the glowing blue lights shut off one by one. Once the last one disappeared from the screen, the lights in the control room shut off. The only light available came from the candle, Rodney's torch and the screens of the computers. Harry checked the energy output of the generators.

"We are completely dark."

The wait was tense and Harry could feel the nervousness coming from the people around him, washing over him in intense waves. He took a few moments in the silence to calm himself, taking deep breaths. He needed to remain calm and controlled in this situation so that they could solve it. He reopened his eyes after he had centred himself. A crinkling sound behind him had him turning in his seat. He saw that it was only Rodney opening another energy bar wrapper to cram into his mouth.

"It's coming." Sheppard's voice broke through the tense silence. "I think you're gonna need a bigger boat."

Rodney swallowed his mouthful of food and whacked his radio in irritation. "Size doesn't matter."

"That's a myth." Harry couldn't help the snort that escaped him at Sheppard's humorous reply to Rodney's serious comment. Sometimes Rodney would say things that could be interpreted the wrong way, but he was completely serious. It made it all the more entertaining when Rodney didn't even realise what he was saying.

"It'll fit. The device traps the creature in subspace. You just need to make sure it gets all the way inside the containment vessel." Rodney turned and glared at Harry, who pulled a blank expression on his face.

"Son of a bitch!" The sharp comment caused everyone in the control room to look up from what they were doing in shock. They may have only been on Atlantis a few days and the Major had only joined the expedition just before they left, but that was enough time for them to come to realise that Sheppard was an easygoing and fair leader. Him swearing needlessly was something they wouldn't have expected from him.

"What happened?" Elizabeth didn't even bother to try and hide her anxiety.

"Damned thing took one look and went away. It's a lot smarter than we thought."

Elizabeth sighed and thought for a moment. "Right. Turn the device off." She turned and looked over the gateroom toward the stained glass windows. The first rays of dawn were just starting to illuminate the room, casting multicoloured shapes on the gateroom. She turned back to her staff, who were watching silently her. "We have all been awake for hours and have been working hard. I think we should all take a quick break. Go and get something to eat, or some coffee. Or even just get some fresh air. We'll meet back here in half and hour to plan what we should do next."

Harry sat still for a few moments as everyone else cleared out of the control room, heading to different parts of the tower to do whatever it was they could do to relax for the next thirty minute before they had to get back to the stress and doom of the current crisis. He sighed and carefully put his tablet on the console and put his radio back in his ear. He had taken it out for a few minutes because it was irritating him, but he needed to replace it because if he didn't, he could guarantee that someone would need him for something urgent and not be able to contact him.

He was a few minutes behind everyone from the control room as they hurried around, trying to cram as much as they could into their thirty minute break, but Harry slowly made his way to the mess for something to eat. He didn't need anything else, other than a good hot meal. He had been awake so long, and was still full of adrenaline from the constant pressure and stress of the situation, that he was feeling wide awake and alert. Because of him dragging his feet, and it being just after sunrise, the mess was empty except for the cooks and a few marines with the early patrol duty.

"What hot food have you got this morning?" Harry moved towards the serving line where the hot food was being placed onto hotplates and spoke to one of the cooks. He stopped a careful few feet away from the hotplates, not looking at the cooked bacon, sausages and other meat dishes available.

"How about bacon on toast? That is popular with the marines and you want to get it before it goes." The young cook looked up and smiled at Harry, who shook his head.

"Harry is vegetarian, Lucas." Matt came up behind the younger man and nodded to Harry, before turning back to his fellow cook. "He is the one that designed the stock programme for us, back on Earth."

Lucas' smile got wider. He extended an arm as if to shake Harry's hand, but Matt caught it and subtly pushed it back down. Lucas looked confusedly between Matt and Harry, who decided to put him out of his misery with an explanation. Most people on the expedition had met Harry, who had briefly explained his quirks to them, and they had told most of the other people that Harry had not met yet. But there were still a few who didn't know him, or his unusual habits, yet.

"I am from an old family and have had a very traditional upbringing and education. Because of this, I was taught social etiquette that may seem strange to others. One such thing is that I don't believe in unnecessary physical contact. I apologise if I have offended you."

Lucas' smile, which had faltered, came back full force. "No, I understand. I did some travelling and backpacking before I joined the marines, so have seen lots of different cultures. And I was based at the SGC and the Alpha site for over a year before we left for Atlantis, so I respect and understand different customs and practices." Lucas looked down at the serving trays. "I've just made some porridge, if you would like that. And I have either honey or fresh fruit to go with it."

Harry bowed his head slightly and gave a small smile in thanks. "That sounds great. I will have some honey with it, please."

"Make sure to put plenty of the honey on. Harry is a fiend for anything sugary." Matt called over to Lucas as he bounded down the hotplate line to get Harry's breakfast.

Harry ignored Matt and thanked Lucas as he passed him his bowl. "Thanks. I really need to eat this and then get back to the control room. I've not got long left of my break." Harry glanced at his watch.

"We'll leave you to it then." Lucas and Matt both moved off to start serving as scientists, Athosians and marines began to flood the room. Harry found himself a nice quiet table out on the balcony to eat his breakfast in peace, watching the sun move higher in sky.

* * *

><p>Harry was wondering when he would start to become sick of the sight of the control room. He had no doubt that this current situation would be the first of many crises, and he could foresee himself spending a long time in this very room that was the heart of the city of Atlantis. But he couldn't complain really. Harry knew exactly how dangerous the expedition could be and how hard he was expected to work – how they all would have to work. Elizabeth had made it abundantly clear to him before they left Earth.<p>

"We need to know where it is right now." Elizabeth was beginning to sound frustrated and Harry couldn't help but admire her slightly. She was only just starting to show he high stress and frustration levels. Harry felt like he was only just starting to observe what a great leader she was, and had no doubt it would become more evident during their time on Atlantis.

"We'll have to turn the power on to use the sensors."

"You can't do that."

Harry took a seat at the primary control console. "What else can we do Rodney? We need to know where it is exactly so we can decide what to do next – or at least to get people out of its path so that we don't have anymore people fried like Lieutenant Ford."

"Do it - just the Operations Tower."

Peter nodded and moved to turn the power back on, but Harry was already ahead of him because he was sat at the needed console. He powered up the generator that supplied the primary power to the control and Gateroom. The lights came on around them and the consoles flared into life.

"What now?" The military commander of Atlantis had re-entered the control room whilst they were debating about turning the power back on (or rather, Rodney was debating), flanked by a few marines.

Elizabeth didn't answer the Major's question, having no firm reply to give. She studied the screen of the laptop on the console before Harry. "It's headed this way."

"Because you turned the power back on!" Rodney snarked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We can't go on like this." Elizabeth pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a few moments, ignoring the people in the control room staring at her as if she could pull an amazing solution out of the air. Harry looked away, knowing what it was like to be in her position, where everyone expected something from you. Elizabeth reopened her eyes and was about to say something else when Teyla's soft voice sounded from next to the windows overlooking the Gateroom.

"Do you think it wants to be here?"

"What do you mean?" Sheppard moved closer to her, a questioning look on its face.

"It's been trapped here for thousands of years, alone." Harry looked at the Athosian closely as she spoke. He could hear the hints of sadness in her voice for the creature. He found himself agreeing with Teyla's emotions. It was sad that this simple creature had been shoved in a box for thousands of year, left to starve by the Ancients.

"It's not alone any more."

"It doesn't think on that level. It thinks about eating, that's it." Rodney's voice was superior, as though he were explaining to children.

"Well, you would know!"

"Ok." Harry could see that Rodney's abrasive personality was starting to annoy the others. He stepped in before they got into a full-on verbal fight. "Now is not the time to be arguing. We need solutions, and to get them we need to work together. Please, continue Teyla."

Teyla gave Harry a sweet smile. "If we stay, it will kill us."

"Not unless we kill it first." Harry looked away so that the others wouldn't see him roll his eyes. It was a typical military suggestion – if you don't understand it, kill it. But Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for the creature trapped on Atlantis. He wasn't exactly innocent himself – he had killed during the War. But he had never gone out of his way to kill a simple creature whose only crime was being starving. He would exhaust every other possibility before he even considered something as inhumane as killing it.

"Well, I don't see how." Rodney's voice held a tone of sulkiness that the other chose to ignore.

"Then either we must go or it must. Maybe it wants to go." Teyla's reasoning seemed to make sense to the humans in the control room. It wasn't like they had many other options right now. Teyla turned back to the windows and pointed to the static gate. "If we open the Stargate ..."

* * *

><p>Harry fiddled with his tablet, making sure that they diagnostic he was running for the fourth time gave the same readings and results as the last three had. He was stood next to a MALP that had been driven in my Nate and Zack and positioned in front of the Stargate. Rodney and Sheppard were stood on the other side of the MALP. A small box was resting on top of the vehicle, which Sheppard opened to reveal once of the spare naquadah generators.<p>

"This is a bad idea." Rodney carefully removed the device from the box before Sheppard could reach over and grab it.

"You said that already." Elizabeth came down the steps and stopped beside them, watching them work.

"Well, it's worth saying again."

Rodney busied himself with calibrating the naquadah and Harry used his spare few moments to run another last minute diagnostic. Hearing quick steps behind him, he span and saw that Teyla was bounding quickly down the staircase.

"It's coming."

"An open Stargate is a huge power source. This thing is smart. It knew enough not to get trapped in the Ancient containment vessel again. How much do you think it's going to follow a naquadah generator through a wormhole?" Rodney tried to get his point across even as he turned the generator on and put it back in the box.

"You got a better idea?"

Rodney ignored him, locking the box. He turned to Harry. "Do we have a go with the remote control programme?"

"Yes." Harry tucked his tablet under his arm.

"You sure?"

Harry turned and gave Sheppard a carefully blank look. "I ran the diagnostic five times. I'm sure."

Elizabeth stepped in before Sheppard could reply. "Harry, no one is questioning your abilities. We are all just a little on edge – we have one chance at this. We have to get it right."

Harry nodded. "Of course. I'm going to head up to the control room and help Peter."

"Good luck." Harry heard Rodney hurry after him, giving his best wishes to those in the Gateroom. Once at the top of the stairs, Harry entered the control room and took a seat next to Peter at the primary control console. He saw that there was a list of gate addresses from the ancient database and a description of each planet on the laptop screen in front of the other British man.

Harry pointed out a gate address to Peter. "Is this the one you were considering?"

Peter nodded, but was interrupted from a more elaborate reply when his laptop flashed and gave a chirp in warning. "It's almost here."

"Do you have an address?" Elizabeth had appeared silently behind them.

"M4X-337. Barren wasteland."

"Dial it." Rodney began to quickly tap out the address on the crystal buttons of the DHD, only needing to consult the laptop screen for the address once. He reached the end of the short sequence and hit the final connection button. The Stargate kawhooshed and finally settled back inside the ring, glowing the typical eerie blue.

Harry looked over the console towards the Gateroom and saw that all the entrances and exits were filled with pitch black darkness. He saw Sheppard dash across to the MALP and hit a button. It gave a mechanical creak, before trundling towards the Stargate. Sheppard ran up the stairs to the control room just in time as the entity engulfed the Gateroom, enveloping the MALP.  
>"It's not going anywhere." Rodney's voice had risen in pitch, which Harry had come to identify as true panic setting in.<p>

"I can't see if the M.A.L.P. got through."

"The entity could have drained the battery."

Harry moved closer to the console and began to rapidly type on the laptop secured to the top. "I'm getting no readings whatsoever. The entity must have drained all power from the MALP."

"It could be feeding off the generator, off-off the Stargate. I mean, this is disaster."

"Shut it down."

Rodney hit the central control button on the DHD and hit it harder than was actually necessary when nothing happened. Harry leaned across Peter and grabbed his tablet. Quickly using the interface that he had set up when they first arrived on the city, he attached the tablet directly to the primary console and accessed the systems. Ancient coding began to scroll across his screen and his flicked from side to side as he rapidly picked out the Ancient words that would tell him what he needed. Looking up, he shook his head when he saw Rodney staring at him. There was nothing he could do.

"I can't." Rodney's voice was quiet, but carried across the room.

"The consoles are dead." Harry looked down and saw that the consoles were dead and that his tablet had stopped displaying Ancient text, and was flashing a lost connection message. Harry ignored the panicked conversation going on around him as he tried to think of a solution to the current life-or-death situation he had managed to find himself in.

Harry took a few deep breaths and allowed his mind to become calm, blocking out the storm of emotions that were crashing around. He connected with his senses and allowed his magic to enhance them, expanding to fill the control and Gateroom. He could feel the others around him, their emotions buzzing like angry bees. He barely managed to hold in a gasp of shock when his senses probed the entity.

It was like a boiling mass of energy. Wizards abilities were not really magical in origin – Harry know knew that wizards were biologically more advanced than other humans in that they could manipulate and control different forms of energy. They couldn't create energy themselves (that was impossible according to the laws of physics), but they could transform and use energy to control their environment. Wizards now knew this thanks to science and their embracement of the modern world and technology. This being was made of pure energy and Harry could feel himself trying to connect with the rolling mass of pure energy.

Harry was considering his options – he would allow the others to discover what he was because this was a justifiable situation and he probably wouldn't survive it anyway – when Sheppard's panicked voice broke into his concentration. His eyes snapped open and he saw that Rodney was walking down the steps to the Gateroom, the green glowing device of the shield once more on his chest.

Rodney ignored the shouts and calls from his colleagues in the control room and marched straight down the last few steps into the mass of darkness. It was a tense minute whilst they all held their breath, edging towards the staircase. Harry heard many gasps of surprise and delight as the entity entered the glowing event horizon of the Stargate and disappeared, but Harry only had eyes for the prone figure on the floor of the Gateroom. He saw Sheppard run down the last few steps and grab Rodney's wrist to check his pulse, tapping his radio at the same time to demand a medical team.

"The power must have been drained by the entity." Harry saw Peter gently pick up the shield device and look at it just as Harry came to a halt next to his prone boss.

"He's not burned. He's breathing. McKay? McKay." Harry didn't think it possible for someone's voice to be both worried and relieved at the same time, but Elizabeth somehow managed it.

Harry took a step back as Rodney opened his eyes and began to ask what had happened. Rodney was already surrounded by people and Harry didn't want to add to the claustrophobic feeling now that he knew the grumpy Canadian would be alright. He watched silently as a medical team came running in, Carson close behind. It took a while, but Rodney finally agreed to get on the gurney.

Harry started up the steps to the control room, when Nate, Zack and Daniel caught up to him. "So, what are you going to do now?"

Harry opened his mouth to reply, when Elizabeth's voice called out to him. "Harry is going to do whatever he wants. We'll manage here."

"But there is so much to check and diagnostics to run…" Harry protested.

Elizabeth gave him a stern look. "You've been working for more hours than I can count. We'll manage here – look, Radek and the others have already started now. Go. I don't want to see you until tomorrow."

"Fine." Harry turned to the marines. "I'm kinda running on adrenaline right now. I was thinking of stopping by the gym or sparring room, grabbing something to eat and then sleeping until tomorrow morning. What do you guys think?"

Daniel rubbed his neck. "Well, our shift actually finished a couple of hours ago, so…"

Harry glared at them all. "Seriously guys, I don't need body guards."

Nate chuckled, leading the way out of the control room. "Oh, we know. You manage to beat the crap out of us every time we spar. But you're our friend and we protect our own."

"Ok fine." Harry rolled his eyes, even though he was touched. "But I'm still going to kick your arse this time, no matter how much you try and sweet talk me."

* * *

><p>Harry entered the quiet room and tried not to disturb the sedate atmosphere present in the control room. He had fully intended to go to bed once he had finished sparring and eating a quick lunchearly dinner. It may only be early evening, but Harry fully intended to try and get in a full twelve hours of sleep before he had to once again get up early tomorrow morning for a new day of work. He just needed to get his tablet from where he had left it on one of the console in the control room.

Harry was just shoving it into his backpack, when Rodney's voice sounded next to his shoulder. "I thought Elizabeth virtually ordered you not to come back here until tomorrow."

Harry turned around and gave the Canadian a small smile. "She did. I just came to grab my tablet and then I'm going to bed and sleeping blissfully until tomorrow morning." Harry eyed the physicist, trying to see any injuries he might have. "Carson actually let you out to come back to work in the control room."

Rodney snorted. "Hell no. He doesn't even know I've escaped the infirmary yet. I just need to make sure that my minions haven't done something to destroy the city."

"He will find you gone and then track you down, you know. Carson is scary like that."

"Well, I'm a busy and important man." Rodney tapped away on his laptop for a few moments, before looking up again at Harry. His voice was unusually quiet for the normally abrasive man. "Sheppard asked me to join his gate team."

Harry blinked. He would never have seen that one coming. He knew from the ever-present rumour mills on Atlantis that Sheppard had asked Teyla to join his team, as well as Lieutenant Ford. But he would never have guessed that the military man would ask someone like Rodney to join – he assumed that another burly and trigger happy marine would be asked. Harry was glad though that Sheppard had enough sense to see that Rodney was a good and brave man deep down, once you worked your way past the arrogance and bluster.

"Congratulations." Harry gave Rodney a genuine smile and small bow of his head in acknowledgment. "You deserve it."

"Thanks, but I'm not – I mean –" Rodney stuttered for another few moments. "I mean, I've not agreed yet. I'm not sure."

Harry shook his head. "Rodney, you are a brilliant man. And we've all seen just how brave you can be. Sheppard would be lucky to have you on his team. At least give it a try. You don't have to stay on an offworld team if you don't like it."

Rodney nodded his head. "Yeah. I guess you are right. I should at least try it." A smirk appeared on Rodney's face. "And Sheppard is lucky to have me on his team. He should be honoured that I would give up my time to be a member of his team and let him use my genius."

Harry smirked and headed towards the exit that led to the personal living quarters. "That's right. He is. See you in the morning Rodney."

Harry was just leaving the room when he heard Carson's loud and very annoyed voice berating Rodney for escaping the infirmary. Harry made his way to the room, chuckling to himself in amusement. Coming to Atlantis was the best decision he had made in a long. It may have only been a few days, but it was starting to feel like home.


	5. Chapter 5

The sun was just rising over the horizon, making the ocean glint with pink and orange hues. It was beautiful and mesmerising enough that one would consider they could be on any ocean on Earth, silently enjoying the view. But Harry knew he wasn't on any ocean on Earth. He was on a planet in another galaxy, light-years away from anything that was familiar.

A tray almost silently slipping onto the table opposite from him drew Harry's attention from the sight of the blazing sun rising over the horizon. Well, Harry mentally corrected, almost everything was unfamiliar here. Except his companions. The people of Atlantis were quickly becoming a community. Harry smiled as Carson slid quietly into the seat across from him and got a small grin and friendly nod in return.

Harry swallowed the tea he was sipping and wiped his mouth on a napkin. "You're up early. Got the first shift of the day in the infirmary?"

Carson picked up his toast, considering it. "Aye." He took a bite off the corner of the buttered slice. Mumbling around the food, he stated, "It's not as if there is any real end to shifts here as such."

Harry smirked. "Yeah, well, I guess that is the pay-off for being in the most amazing place. I never would have imagined myself here if someone had asked me a few months ago where I was hoping my career would take me."

"And where did you think that your career was taking you before being recruited to Atlantis?"

Both Carson and Harry turned their heads at the sound of a new voice in their discussion. Harry grinned as Dan and Zack slouched into chairs on either side of him. "Well, I was working at the Pentagon. So, I guess I thought that I would have a nice cushy desk job for the rest of my life."

Zack frowned playfully. "Harry, we all know that you are not the desk job kind of guy. You work best when you are doing something active."

"I have to agree with him, lad. You seem happy when you are doing something. I can't imagine you sat behind a desk for the rest of your life." Carson chewed his toast for a few minutes in silence, before looking at the men either side Harry. "I've just remembered. Now that the gene therapy has worked on Dr McKay, Dr Weir has given me the go-ahead to treat some others who said before we left Earth that they would volunteer." Carson finished his food and wiped his hands on his napkin. "You two are on my list."

Zack's grin got wider. "That's great, Doc! I've been waiting for months for that therapy. When can I get it done?"

Carson smiled as Dan nodded enthusiastically. "I have some spare time this morning. Give me a few hours to clear it with Dr Weir and Major Sheppard, and I'll radio you when I'm ready."

"Sounds good."

Harry rose from his seat. "You guys grab the food?"

Dan nodded and, seeing Carson's confused face, explained. "We are going to spar and meditate in the gym. None of us like to do that on a full stomach, so we eat when we are done."

"I'll see you later, Carson." Harry gave the Scot a small smile that got larger as he was walking out of the mess hall entrance and he heard Carson shout that he hoped it wasn't in his infirmary with an injury.

The sparring room was empty at that time of the morning as the door opened automatically as Harry walked towards it. Harry really loved advanced technology. Sure, they had automatic sensor doors on Earth, but here they were all operated on thought and intention. Harry was accustomed to things happening on just will alone – it was how magic worked. The Magical community on Earth were making rapid advancements in combining their mental capabilities with pre-existing Muggle technology and had even started to advance new technologies themselves. It was a far cry from how things were just a few years before, where the most advanced pieces of technology were old cameras and radios.

Harry slipped his shoes off and sat down in the centre of the room. He felt the multi-coloured light warm his face as it glimmered and glittered through the amazing stained glass windows high on one wall of the room. Pulling his socks off, balling them up and throwing them over towards where he had dumped his shoes, he took deep breaths as he prepared for the ritual meditation that he and the others did both before and after a sparring sessions if the head enough time and no emergencies occurred.

Closing his eyes, Harry blocked out the sounds of the others as they prepared themselves and sat around the room. Harry took deep breaths and concentrated on feeling free and calm. Once he was breathing deeply and was almost disconnected from the world around him, Harry allowed himself to immerse his consciousness within the mental representation of his magic. He felt the warmth and power flow through every part of his mind and allowed it to gradually seep outward through his physical body. Harry forced himself to gradually reconnect with his surroundings, feeling the city and the people within it with his magic.

Harry could feel the activity in the tower around him. He could sense the other scientists and marines as they went about their everyday duties in the mythical city of Atlantis. They were almost like a hive of bees, all activity and energy. The city itself pulsed with energy in the tower, constantly changing as the needs of those inhabiting it also changed as they went about their business. Harry could sense the other towers close by, shut down but not completely dead. They were just waiting to power up like the primary tower. Harry pulled himself back and shrank back out of the glowing ball of energy that represented his power.

Harry opened his eyes and saw the others slowly do the same. Raising an eyebrow and receiving nods in return, Harry rose calmly to his feet. Zack began to limber up and stretch as Dan backed off to the side to watch. Harry stretched himself a few times to prepare himself to spar after the time spent relaxing in meditation and nodded to Nate as he slipped in with a sheepish grin on his face. Harry knew he had the late patrol duty last night and didn't begrudge him extra time in bed.

Zack's first punch was sudden, but not unexpected. Harry had spotted the moment Zack's body had tensed slightly despite him trying to appear relaxed. Harry stepped out the way at the last minute and grabbed the arm as it flew past his face. Turning sideways, Harry slammed his full weight into Zack and brutally knocked him down whilst he was off balance. Aiming a kick at his ribs as he was on the floor, Harry commented to Zack, "You need to work on your footing when you do offensive moves."

Zack grunted in response, winded slightly from his impact with the floor and having to roll out the way of Harry's kick. He pulled himself swiftly to his feet and took a carefully stance. He and Harry circled each other for a quick moment, before Harry swung his fist out towards Zack's face, forcing Zack into a defensive position. Harry kept pushing and pushing forward with his sustained attack on his friend. Zack managed to get a few hits in, but Harry was ruthless in his onslaught.

It ended with Zack managing to slip around behind Harry and get him in a lock, but Harry threw his elbow back and Zack couldn't moved out the way fast enough. When he heard a grunt of pain as his elbow connected, Harry twisted his entire body and got Zack on the floor under him, his arm twisted up his back.

"Jesus Harry. I give." Zack's voice was muffled as his face was squashed against the floor. Harry grinned and let him up, pulled him to his feet and swiftly letting him go.

Harry's reply was stopped, however, by a soft voice in the doorway. "You are very talented."

Harry put a neutral look on his face and turned towards their observer. He saw that it was the petite Athosian woman who had been asked to join Major Sheppard's Gateteam , Teyla. He had heard many things about the woman, but had no personal experience in dealing with her. "I'm glad you enjoyed it. More than Zack did I imagine."

Teyla bowed her head in acknowledgement. "I am Teyla."

Harry gave a careful bow back, ensuring he got the correct depth. Bowing was the form of greeting in the magical world, and not doing so correctly could cause insult. Teyla was the leader of her people and deserved a certain level of respect from Harry. "I am Harry Potter. This is Lieutenant Nathaniel Brannon, Lieutenant Zachary Ortiz and Captain Daniel Sokolov."

"It is a pleasure to meet you all." Teyla gave them a radiate smile as the marines waved and nodded as they were introduced. Her dark gaze returned to Harry. "I am always looking for new sparring partners for myself and the students I teach. I would be honoured if you would consider joining us one morning."

Harry pulled his sock and shoes back on. "It would be an honour. Just let me know when and I'll see what I can do." Harry stood up and accepted the water Nate thrust at him. "It would be good to learn a new style of fighting."

"What kind were you just doing?"

Nate gave a casual shrug. "It was mixed martial arts. We all have different experience with different fighting styles, so we combined them. We have been sparring together since before we left Earth."

"There are loads of different kinds of martial arts on Earth. We just picked the best bits of them." Zack added, wiping his head with a small towel.

"I'm sure you could teach my students a great deal." Teyla gave them all another radiant smile.

Harry picked up his water and the towel Dan had thoughtfully brought along for him. "Well, I've got to get to work. But it was an honour to meet you and I'm sure we can all teach other a great deal in the future." Harry gave another careful bow of his head and left the room.

Teyla watched him go, a curious look on her face. She turned to the marines, who were putting on their shoes and gathering their stuff. "I do not mean any insult, but I have only spent a short amount of time among your people. And whilst there are so many different people on your expedition, none of them are quite like Harry."

Dan gave her a soft smile. "You were wondering if Harry is always like that."

Teyla nodded. "I have traded with many people on many worlds. But none have ever been so….formal."

"On Earth, we have many different cultures, all as different as the next. Harry comes from an old family in an old culture. He told me once that he was taught strict etiquette for almost every situation, and it is hard to break a habit ingrained in." Zack laced his shoes up and looked up at the small Athosian woman. "Harry has his quirks, but he is a good person – a good friend. He just needs some time to warm up to you."

"He seems younger than any other I have seen here."

"Nate shrugged. "He is the youngest by several years. He is just 18. But he is brilliant – a genius. He wouldn't be here if he wasn't."

* * *

><p>It was hours later and Harry was still working on the same damn interface program. He was sure it was created for the sole purpose of driving him insane. Not that he was completely sane to begin with – all the people on the Atlantis expedition had to be a little bit crazy to agree to leave their lives (and planet) to go on a top secret government mission to a galaxy far, far away. Harry rubbed his eyes and glared at the program. He knew that the ancient systems were so much more advanced than human technology, so his patience was extended a great deal further than it would be otherwise.<p>

Harry ran through the coding from the beginning again, sure that his problem was just a small mistake or something typed wrong. He was only just starting to scowl when he found no mistakes, when a beeping interrupted the swear-tirade running through his head. Harry wiped the scowl off his face and swivelled his chair to face the open doorway. He found a soldier politely waiting in the doorway.

"What can I do for you, Sergeant Bates?"

Bates took a step forward. "I was heading past your lab, otherwise I would have radioed you. There is a physical fitness test in half an hour for all civilians who will be going offworld."

"But I won't be going off world."

"There are no immediate plans, but you may be required to go offworld if a piece of technology can't be easily of safely brought back through the Gate. Dr Weir provided me with a list of everyone that has to pass the fitness test before they can go through the Gate."

"Ok." Harry closed all his active work and locked his machines. "I'll go change and meet you in the gym, I presume?"

"Yes." Bates left with a curt nod. Harry looked at the empty doorway for a moment, before exiting the lab to go to his room to change back into his gym clothes. It only took him a few minutes to change and he spent the time on the walk down to the gym wondering what the test would be like. Before he had left Earth, it had been a requirement to have physical, psychological and fitness tests. But the fitness test was just to ensure a bare minimum of fitness. This test would obviously be more extensive, but Harry wasn't worried. He knew he wasn't unfit.

Harry got to the gym and saw maybe a dozen or so other scientists, including a scowling Carson. Harry made his way over to the Scotsman and greeted him cheerfully. "Hey Carson. I see you've been dragged here for some torture by exercise as well."

"Aye lad. And I'm not looking forward to it, I can tell you."

Harry saw the doctor level a glare at Bates' back and smiled. "How did the gene therapy this morning go?"

Carson continued glaring at the soldier, but answered Harry. "It went well. Both of your marine friends took to the gene and seem to have good control over Ancient technology now. I'd say they have a knack for it."

Harry grinned to himself. He was immensely glad for his friends. Both he and Nate had the gene naturally, but he knew that Dan and Zack really wanted to be able to control technology like they did. The success of the therapy now meant that all four of them had the gene.

"Right, that's everyone." Bates came to stand in front of the crowd of scientists, a few marines standing behind him. "You all know why you are here. You need to pass this fitness test if you are to be allowed offworld. It is nice and simple. You have to run a set path through the city under a certain time. We are going to number you all and stagger your start so we don't have a large group trying to get down the corridors. I will tell you if you are in time when you cross the finish line. Any questions?"

"What if we do not finish in time?"

Bates nodded. "If you do not pass, you will be required to attend the training sessions that will soon be starting for all civilians that want to go offworld. You will only be allowed offworld once you have passed the test." Bates looked around for anymore questions. When he saw that there were none, he continued. "Right. Smyth and Parsons will be giving you your order to leave. You all have the standard watches that are part of the uniform. When you set off, you will start the timer on there. Smyth will stay and make sure none of you cheat and don't start the timer."

Bates left the room and Parsons, a smiling blonde marine, came around with numbered stickers. Harry found himself as the very last number, number 16, and took a seat. He gave Carson a wave, who had found himself first and didn't seem happy about it. Harry soon got bored waiting for his turn to set off and began to fidget. He stretched and warmed up as the number of scientist slowly dwindled in the room. Once the last scientist had left with a scowl, Harry eagerly loped to the doorway and did a few last minute stretches.

"Okay, you can go." Smyth smiled at Harry as he started his stop watch and leisurely jogged through the corridors, following the post-it notes that were stuck to the walls as makeshift path markers. Harry enjoyed running. He had enough practice in his childhood and it was an easy way to keep fit during the War. He had made sure that his training always including running. Harry pushed himself to run at a fairly fast pace, but knew he would average a good time. He wasn't pushing himself incredibly hard – he knew he could go faster, but knew that at the pace he was running, he would pass the test.

Harry barely noticed as he dodged around people in the corridors. He concentrated on take steady breaths. The course was shorter than he expected and he found himself stopping in front of Bates. He clicked his watch to stop the timer and held his wrist out for Bates to see.

Bates wrote down the time on his clipboard and glanced up at Harry's number to make sure he got the right name to write the time next to. He saw the 16 and froze. "You were the last to leave?"

"Yes, I was the last number." Harry raised an eyebrow. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah. You're just the first to arrive is all. I guess I wasn't expecting any time like this from the scientists. You have beaten the time of some of my marines."

Harry cleared his throat. "I like jogging."

Bates looked at him for a minute, before nodding slowly. "Well, it is safe to say that you have passed."

"Thanks." Harry nodded to the marine. "I'm going to go and shower and get back to work."

* * *

><p>Harry pulled his tablet closer to him and kept his eyes trained on the text floating across the screen even as he drank his near-scalding cup of tea. Harry took a small bite of sandwich, swiftly catching a piece of tomato before it could hit the screen. Harry frowned as he tried to decipher the text and gave himself a mental pat on the back as he got the right translations. He was searching the database for information on the Wraith and had been disappointed by what he had found. He had found plenty of information on their physiology and technology, but nearly nothing on their culture or beliefs. He managed to find a database that was just about extensive enough to allow him to learn the written language of the Wraith and a few files on the spoken communication of them so he could probably grasp the spoken language at a basic level.<p>

Harry was just moving onto more complex pieces of Wraith writing when he sensed someone stood next to his table. Harry had gone to dinner after finally finding his issue with that damn interface program for a minor system and discovered that everyone else had the same idea. The mess hall was busy and Harry had only been able to get a small table right in the middle of the room. He had blocked out the entire noise of the room as he was working, but as he focused on the person stood next to him, all the noise washed back over him.

Harry blinked and observed the person before him. It was a marine, clutching a closed laptop and watching Harry with a nervous and hopefully expression. It was an incongruous look on a marine's face and confused Harry.

"Can I help you marine?" Harry kept his expression bland, but raised an eyebrow in question.

"Are you the computer geek?"

Harry's other eyebrow joined its brother up his forehead. "I'm the resident expert in computers, if that is what you mean."

The marine's face paled slightly as he caught the sharpness in Harry's gaze at the word 'geek'. "Right. I'm sorry. I know that I shouldn't call you a geek or nerd or anything like that. Sorry!"

Harry allows his stoic expression to relax slightly. "It's ok. It wouldn't be the first time I've heard it. And I've definitely heard worst. What can I do for you?"

The marine let out a breath and thrust his laptop at Harry. "I've erm, broke my laptop. And I need it for reports."

Harry took the offered technology and carefully looked it over. His eyes widened at the dent he found in it. "What the hell have you done to it?"

The marine rubbed his neck. "I dropped it. Down a few steps. Whilst running."

Harry shook his head. "Right. Well, it could take me a few days. I'll let you know when I'm done."

The marine nodded and hurried off with mumbled thanks. Harry watched him exit the mess, confused. Was it something he had said? Harry's musing was cut short by Nate throwing himself into the chair opposite Harry, his tray overflowing with food. Nate chuckled at Harry's expression. "I see that you've finally discovered you reputation among the marines."

Harry glared at Nate. "Excuse me?"

Nate took a huge bite of his burger. He was busy chewing, but the answer Harry was looking for came from Matt, who had been clearing and cleaning some tables. He sat himself next to Nate as he spoke. "A couple of the female marines saw you and the guys training at the Antarctica base. They wanted to see more, so bribed a security guard for copies of the security camera footage both at Antarctica and the SGC."

Harry nearly spat out his tea. "What?"

Nate swallowed and grinned. "They were caught watching it by some of the guys. They didn't believe that a scientist would be able to beat a marine. But they saw that awesome clip of you taking Dan down from our first training session in Antarctica. You know, Dan is the best fighter among the marines? Everyone knows that."

Matt nodded. "Yeah, so now they are all kind of scared of you. You're a genius, but you can kick their asses if they tried anything with you. It's funny really."

Harry shook his head. "I have no idea what I feel about this. The marines watching footage of me is kind of….creepy."

Nate laughed. "Well, at least you don't have to hear what some of the female marines say about you. If I have to hear one more comment about your ass….." Nate gave an exaggerated shudder, laughing harder at Harry's look of horror.

"God, I don't need to hear any of this."

"Hear any of what?" Dan slid into the seat next to Harry.

"Just how scared of Harry all the marines are and how the women are waiting for his back to be turned so they can jump him."

Dan grinned. "Yeah, that is pretty funny. Just this afternoon, I heard some of the female botanists and a couple of female marines take about how much of a gentleman Harry is. Trust me, Harry, you should be glad that I'm sparing you the details of _that _conversation."

Harry glared at the laughing men. "This isn't funny! I'm never going to be able to look at any of them the same ever again. And the marines being scared of me? Seriously? That's just ridiculous!" Harry gave them his best dark glare, which must have been pretty scary because they all stopped laughing straight away. "I'm gonna kick your asses next time we train." Harry promised in a deadly voice, and was satisfied when they all compulsively swallowed.

"Harry…we were just joking. You wouldn't really – Harry!" Harry ignored the calls behind him as he left the mess hall with his tablet and the dinted laptop.

* * *

><p>Harry was startled from a dream by a persistent crackle in his ear. He shot up and nearly fell off the sofa, where he was precariously perched on the edge. Harry blinked a few times trying to remember his dream, but only remembering the sickening smell of burning. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm his hammering heart, and was once again annoyed by a crackling sound. Harry realised that it was his radio and repositioned it back in place so he could hear the sound coming through it clearly.<p>

"Sorry, I didn't catch that? Could you please repeat it?" Harry rubbed his eyes and pulled himself away from the edge of the couch. He had taken a quick nap in his lab, the door firmly locked. He was normally a bundle of energy and had learnt to keep going for days without much (or any, sometimes) sleep during the War. But Harry's brain had been working overtime since he joined the Atlantis expedition. Taking a nap was never something he would have considered in the past but Harry realised that here, on Atlantis, it was okay to close his eyes for a few minutes when they weren't in a crisis.

"We have an emergency." Weir's voice was tense and Harry sat up straighter. Damn him for thinking that nothing bad could happen whilst he was asleep. The Universe had a sick sense of humour. "I need you to get down to the conference room. Quickly – we have very little time. You'll be briefed when you get here."

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

Harry shoved his feet into the boots neatly set beside the couch and hastily tied the laces. Grabbing his jacket, Harry jogged out of the door as fast as his mental 'open' command would allow him. He didn't even have to dodge anyone in the hallways. Those that saw him coming were well trained with how things worked out here in the universe – if a scientist ran past with a harassed/panicked look or a soldier armed to the teeth, you got out of the way. It was almost guaranteed that there was a crisis of Biblical proportion happening.

Harry made it to the conference in less than two minutes, as personal best for him. Taking a second to compose himself and straighten his t-shirt as he put his jacket on, Harry glanced in the room and saw several scientists gathered around the conference table and Carson stood to the side, a look of worry plastered across his face. He slipped into the room and stood next to Carson just as Grodin began his explanation of the current situation.

"Major Sheppard's team were coming in after being attacked by the Wraith during their mission. One of the drive pods was damaged, and so didn't retract automatically as it should. As a result, the front half of the Jumper has already entered the event horizon, whilst the back half is unable to enter. We have less than 30 minutes to find a solution."

Harry saw several scientists open their mouths to question or comment, but they were stopped from doing so Elizabeth swiftly entering the room. "Alright, you've all been briefed. We have less than half an hour. Where's Doctor Zelenka?"

Harry refrained from scowling as Kavanaugh pushed his way to the front of the group. Now was not the time to let his dislike of the annoying man get in the way of saving their peoples' lives. "He's working up a simulation in Puddle Jumper Two. He went straight there."

"That's good." Elizabeth's voice was steady, but Harry could pick up the worry in her tone.

"If there was time, it would be."

Harry did let a scowl through his calm expression this time. He really wanted to punch the man in the face. He kept his tone level and blank, but his emerald eyes were hard. "There are six of our people on that ship, Kavanaugh. Are you suggesting we give up? Let them die out there without even lifting a finger to try and help?" Harry leaned back against the table behind him, crossing his arms casually over his chest. "If you don't want to help, or you think you aren't up to even trying, then you should just get out. We don't need any sorry excuses of human kind in the way."

Kavanaugh looked furious, Harry noted with satisfaction. The long-haired man opened his mouth to start shouting what Harry had no doubt would be an impressively arrogant and angry tirade, when he was cut of Carson. Harry saw the Scotsman rolling his eyes.

"I'm just a medical doctor here, so forgive me if this is a stupid question. If they just stepped through the event horizon, wouldn't they come through the front part of the ship when the Gate shuts down?"

Kavanaugh gave a huff of annoyance and was still eying Harry with intense distaste, but answered the kindly doctor." The front half won't rematerialise on this side."

"The Stargate transmits matter in discrete units. The front half of the ship cannot rematerialise until the whole ship has crossed into the event horizon. The Stargate is essentially waiting for the contiguous components - meaning the Jumper and everyone inside - to enter completely before it can transport them." Peter explained swiftly, but Carson just gave him a blank look before turning to Elizabeth for help.

"He said the Gate only sends things through in one piece."

"Right. Sorry."

"Unfortunately, the outgoing Stargate won't transmit the matter stream until the demolecularisation is complete. When it shuts down, the entire forward section, along with the men inside, will cease to exist."

"And what about the others?"

"The ship will be severed instantaneously along the event horizon. They'll be exposed to hard vacuum, in twenty nine minutes." Peter's voice was sad.

"What if they closed the bulkhead door?"

Harry moved off to the side of the room to look at the schematics of the puddle Jumper that had been printed off a few days ago when they had first found the ships. He tuned out the rest of the conversation as he arranged the schematic drawings on the tables, separating the exterior and interior designs and then digging out the designs of the crystal system. He took these to the next table and set them out separately. He had only seen a few design drawings that the Ancients had. One design had been for the chair and console at the Antarctica base on Earth. Harry had to admire the designs – the intricate drawings of the system was almost as beautiful and complex as the actual physical system.

Harry looked back up as he saw the scientists gathering around him to look over various aspects of the Jumper designs. Glancing behind him, he saw that both Elizabeth and Carson had left the scientist to their work. Harry turned his gaze back to the design in front of him. Well, nobody told him that life on Atlantis would be boring.

* * *

><p>Harry really wished that he could be somewhere else right now. Not because he baulked at a challenge – especially not at the challenging situation he was currently in, where he had to help save the lives of people floating in space within only twenty-odd minutes. He had been in plenty of situations like this during the War (although not in a super-advanced flying city floating on an alien sea on a distant planet in a far away galaxy). No, he really wished he wasn't here because he couldn't take the arguing anymore. They were like goddamn children!<p>

Harry stood from his seat and slammed his fist into the table, hard. The impact was loud enough to carry over the screeching voices (so he used a little unseen magic to help it sound louder, sue him). Harry kept a blank mask on his face, but his eyes shown his anger. Using a voice honed during training and the War, he kept it low, but everyone heard him clearly.

"Enough." Harry unclenched his fist and laid both hand flat on the table in front of him. Keeping his shoulders tense, he leaned forward. "We have a job to do and you have spent the last three minutes – three very precious minutes- arguing about a stupid point!"

Kavanaugh glared at Harry, but Simpson nodded in agreement. "He's right. We need to move on, there isn't much time."

"Oh, so now you're siding with him?" Kavanaugh pushed his glasses up his nose in fury. "He doesn't even know what he is talking about! In fact, I have no idea why he is here!" Kavanaugh gave a derisive snort. "Oh, yeah. It's because McKay likes him for some insane reason that I can't figure out. Potter doesn't deserve his place on this expedition – he has no talent, he is just a kid and he doesn't even have any qualifications. And you're just going to trust his opinion on this over my years of experience and expertise?"

Both Simpson and Harry were saved from answering the sanctimonious bespectacled man when Elizabeth came in, a harrowed look on her face. Seeing the tense state everyone was in, she guessed that it wasn't going well for them. "You're supposed to be working on solutions."

Kavanaugh ignored everyone in the room and spoke loudly over any of their replies to the Expedition leader. "We think the Jumper must be damaged for this to have happened in the first place. Ancient systems are too advanced for this to have been pilot error."

"So?" Harry could see that Elizabeth was starting to get irritated by Kavanaugh and Harry felt somewhat mollified.

"So depending on the extent of the damage, we can't rule out a catastrophic power feedback in the drive manifold."

"Without the technobabble, please." If Harry wasn't so good at reading people (as skill he had found useful both during the War and after it), he wouldn't have seen how much Elizabeth dislike the scientist talking to her like she was a petulant child.

Simpson was quick to jump into the conversation. "Doctor Kavanaugh was pointing out that there is a very slim chance that with the cockpit controls interrupted and the pod damaged, the main drive could overload."

"She means to say explode - especially if McKay starts nosing around inside the control conduits to retract the drive pod manually. And he will. I know I would." Kavanaugh saw that Harry and Simpson were about to speak to argue with him some more, so ploughed on with his point. "If there is a catastrophic overload, the full force of the explosion will break up the Jumper, follow the burning fragments through the Stargate like a bomb."

Harry saw Elizabeth look down, deep in thought. He knew how hard leadership was. You had to make decisions involving the lives of people who were your responsibility. Living with the outcome of those choices was hard, especially if the worst happened and someone lost their life. The weight of that responsibility and guilt was immense. Harry felt compassion and understanding for the woman before him, and although he couldn't tell her that he knew how she felt, he could show loyalty and support her tough decisions.

"You think the risk of this happening is minimal?"

"In my opinion, yes." Simpson's voice was firm. She returned the glare of her fellow American scientist and crossed her arms in defiance.

Elizabeth looked around at the others in the room, seeking their opinion on the matter and gauging which scientist involved in a deadly glaring match they supported. "You all agree?"

Harry saw everyone around him (except Kavanaugh of course) nod their head, some emphatically and some hesitantly. Harry knew that Kavanaugh could sometimes steamroll right over some of the quieter scientists on the expedition and would disregard both their opinions and feelings if he thought that they were wrong.

Harry saw Elizabeth's gaze lingering on him and looked up to meet her gaze. He saw so much in her look. Harry doubted that Elizabeth knew just how much her eyes gave her away. In Harry's experience, very few people did. Or it could be that he had just taught himself how to gauge what someone was feeling (necessary when he was a child for telling when his relatives were about to give him a smack and then in the War for trying to pre-empt his opponents' next moves).

"I will follow any decision that you make. For the record, I agree with Simpson." Harry glared at Kavanaugh as he snorted. "I'm going to go up to the Jumper bay and help Radek with his work."

"I thought it was important to point out the risk."

Elizabeth couldn't suppress the eye roll this time. "Fine. You did. Now please, worry a little bit more about their lives and less about your own ass. Twenty three minutes."

Elizabeth swiftly left and Harry made to follow her. As he was leaving, he heard Kavanaugh as he couldn't help one last dig at Harry. "I don't know how Potter thinks he can help Zelenka. He will just be more of a hindrance than a help with Zelenka having to watch his every mistake."

Harry was mentally debating about turning around and tearing the man a new one, when the other scientist got there before him. He could hear the fury in Simpson's voice as it rose above all the other angry voices coming from the room. "Harry is one of a few people who have spent the most time around the crystal technology and computer systems of the Ancient consoles. I'm sure that he certainly knows more about them than you damn well do! Now, if you are done being a petulant child, we need to get back to work!"

Harry allowed himself a grin and he jogged up to the Jumper bay. He had avoided making any close friends after the War had ended and he had moved to the USA. Sure, he had friends and people who he wrote to back in the UK, but he never allowed himself to get emotionally tied or invested in anyone. But since he had joined the Atlantis expedition, he couldn't help but be affected by the feeling of community and almost family that the group was starting to develop. For the first time in a long time, Harry was beginning to think that having close friends who were nearly like a family wasn't such a bad thing. No one would ever be able to replace the Weasleys and Hermione and all the others he had lost in his heart, but he was starting to think that there was space for some new people.

Harry entered the Jumper bay and skirted around the stationary and silent Jumpers towards the one that had its ramp lowered and Czech swears emanating from it. Harry suppressed a grin at some of the words and phrases coming from the small scientist – he never knew Radek could be so creative with profanities. After meeting the members of the expedition, Harry had made a note of the nationalities and languages they all spoke. He was good at patterns and saw languages as another pattern, almost like they were a code to crack. And Harry loved a challenge, so he spent time learning the basics of as many as he could.

"Radek." Harry silently entered the Jumper, pretending to not notice when the Czech jumped around when he spoke. Radek was pretty engrossed in his work when Harry had entered. "I've come down to help you."

Radek just grunted, seeming to on to something, otherwise Harry knew he would have answered Harry. Harry watched the small man for a few moments, careful not to disturb him any further. He saw Radek's hands deftly moved across the screen of his tablet before he poked at the exposed crystals in the access panel above his head.

"Ow!" Harry winced as Radek shoved his finger in his mouth. Electric shocks, no matter how minor or small stung like hell. Radek pulled his finger out of his mouth after just a few seconds and intently connected another crystal. He stabbed at his tablet and burst into an excited grin when it gave a beep, which resonated loudly around the silent Jumper.

Radek jumped off the box he had been standing on to reach the panel and smacked his radio. "Doctor Zelenka to Control Room. I think I have something!" He grabbed the tablet and forwarded his findings to the control room computers. Turning, he shoved another tablet at Harry, who looked over the data.

"You've isolated the control pathway to the engine pods, but we still need to find the correct circuit." Harry leaned up and stretched to connect the tablet to the access panel. He tuned out his surroundings as data flew across his pad, and he occasionally tweaked the crystals above him, ignoring the small shocks when he got the connection wrong.

Harry had left the connection open on his radio so he could hear the conversation between the control room and the Jumper. He was acutely aware of the time constraints and could feel the adrenaline forcing him to work faster when he heard that they had only a few minutes left before the Gate automatically disengaged. Harry's hands seemed to be working through the circuits of their own accord and he was almost shocked when he found the correct circuit and heard the engine pods on the Jumper he was in engage. He swiftly sent the data to the control tower computers and hit his radio to talk.

"Rodney, I've got the right circuit. Peter, send it to him ASAP!"

Harry heard the confirmation in his ear and dropped off the box he was stood in. He walked to the edge of the jumper entrance and saw a hazmat-clad medical team waiting for the Jumper's arrival. Harry set down the tablet and pulled his earpiece out and shoved it into his pocket. He leaned against the side of the Jumper and closed his eyes. The last dregs of energy he was running on were quickly running out. He never got to finish his nap and the last thirty minutes had been really intense. He just wanted to go to bed.

Harry's eyes snapped open when he heard the near-silent landing of the Jumper on the other side of the bay. He saw the back hatch open and the ramp lower. A blur of white crossed his vision and he saw Carson rushing to the entrance of the damaged Jumper. Harry's position in Jumper two offered him a prime view into the prone Jumper. He watched worriedly as the medics tended to those inside. Seeing Elizabeth crossing the bay at a rapid pace, Harry loped down the ramp of his own Jumper and silently joined her as she rushed to the other vessel.

Inside the Jumper, Carson was using a defibrillator on Sheppard, who was lying on the floor in the cockpit, looking pale and not breathing. Another medic lifted the airbag from Sheppard's face and Carson shocked him again. Harry watched silently, stood at the back out of the medics' way, as Carson tried to save the expedition's military leader. He moved back as Ford was wheeled out, an oxygen mask forced on his face.

Harry followed Rodney as he moved to the cockpit of the Jumper to watch Carson saving the life of the Major. They all watched, silent, as Carson shocked the dark-haired man, almost unanimously letting out a sigh of relief when the monitor begins to let a small but regular rhythmic beep. Carson breaths for what Harry is sure is the first time in the last few minutes as the heart beat get stronger and stronger.

"He's going to be ok." The Scot's voice is quiet, but everyone hears him clearly.

Harry saw Elizabeth sink into one of the benches along the side of the Jumper and heard Rodney give an audible sigh of relief. Harry looked around at the people around him as the medics continued their work to prepare the Major for transport to the infirmary. He didn't know the Major personally and wasn't on his team. He suddenly felt like he was intruding on a personal moment.

Harry gently clasped Rodney's shoulder, silently conveying his support and relief to the Canadian. Rodney turned slightly and looked surprised when he saw that it was Harry who was touching his shoulder. Everyone that interacted with Harry regularly knew about his quirk when it came to physical contact with others. Rodney opened his mouth to say something, but Harry had already left the Jumper.

Harry was going to bed and he damn well wasn't going to be disturbed in the next few hours for anything short of the Apocalypse.

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><p>Harry looked around him in confusion. He distinctly remembered getting ready for bed, locking his door and putting his radio in his bedside draw so that he wasn't disturbed. He remembered turning over and looking out of his windows and seeing the city lit up, before he used his magic to mentally close the curtains to plunge the room into darkness just before he finally fell asleep.<p>

Yet he now found himself in a random corridor on Atlantis. He knew he was on Atlantis because the architecture and materials of the corridor couldn't be anything but Ancient. Harry racked his brains, trying to figure out how he had gotten here – here being some seemingly abandoned and empty part of the city that he hadn't recognised. And Harry had pretty much memorised the entire control tower. Harry reached up to tap his radio, but found his ear empty. He suddenly remembered that he had removed it and shoved it away in a draw to avoid being disturbed.

Sighing, Harry wandered down the corridor. He was glad that he hadn't run into anyone. He was wearing only a pair of sleep pants and t-shirt because it had been cold. Harry keenly looked around as he carefully wandered down the abandoned passageway, but there wasn't anything to see or hear. Just as he was getting annoyed, a doorway loomed in front of him as he wandered around a curve in the passage. He carefully waved his hand over the glowing crystal of the panel and the door slid open with a near inaudible whoosh.

Harry's breath caught in his throat.

The room in front of him certainly didn't belong on any part of Atlantis. Or anywhere near this galaxy. It wasn't even in the right time. The door had opened to a part of Hell that was especially designed just for Harry. His heart hammered in his chest and he heard a roaring in his ears as the blood pounded around his body. Harry tried to close the door, waving his hand desperately over the crystals, but it refused to budge. Harry suddenly found that he had no control over his legs and he was forced to step into the room, the door closing with a loud click behind him.

Harry clenched his teeth and scrunched his eyes shut to block out the scene before him. Feeling his emotions running riot, Harry suddenly shook himself. He knew he could control himself better than this – he was a War veteran for God's sake! Taking deep breaths, Harry calmed himself down and shoved his emotions into a small corner of himself. Smoothing his features and feeling a cool detachment, Harry opened his eyes once again.

The scene was chaos. It had once been a Muggle shopping centre, but was now reduced to rubble. The building had been an amazing Muggle feat of engineering and design and this day was its grand opening. It had been an event to remember, but not for the right reasons. It should have been a day of wonder and enjoyment and harmless consumerism. But Wizards had made the day about blood, death and carnage.

Voldemort had chosen his targets in the Muggle world well – places with lots of people, places important to Muggles and places that would ensure maximum effect. This shopping centre was the fourth act of terror against the Muggles that Voldemort had pulled off. The fourth that the Resistance hadn't been able to stop in time. By the time Harry's forces had gotten there, the building was destroyed, hundreds were dead and the entire scene was chaos. They had quickly taken over the scene and secure it from Muggle authorities for a short time and were engrossed in making it structurally safe for the Muggle rescue teams, when Voldemort orchestrated a second attack.

Voldemort had never gone back to a Muggle attack site before, so they were surprised when the Death Eaters had returned. It had been a brutal fight, and both sides had lost numbers. Harry remembered feeling a dull sense of satisfaction that they had taken out so many Death Eaters, but also feeling sad that they had lost a small number of their allies and comrades. But it was the end of the battle and the second attempt at cleanup that would forever be engrained in Harry's mind.

Harry took deep breaths, ignoring the black smoke swirling around him and pushed himself to walk forward. He knew exactly what he would find just up ahead, in the area that had once been a children's toy shop. But he couldn't stop – he had to see this through. He felt a thick liquid slipping between his toes and didn't have to look down to know that it was blood. He didn't have to look down to see the bodies of several children who had been caught in the explosion or by spells and bits of falling debris. Harry's gaze was focused intently on a spot a few more metres in front of him.

Harry remembered coming this way on his own, his battle robes covered in dust from the debris and torn in several places from spells he had barely managed to dodge. He remembered his side being caught by a stray cutting hex that had bounced of a falling piece of metal beam, by a Death Eater that Harry had swiftly finished off. His side had been bleeding sluggishly, but he had dismissively wrapped into in a clean bandage and ignored the Healer's protests that it would scar if not healed soon. All thoughts of his own injury had fled his mind when he had seen the scene before him.

Even as Harry stepped forward, he could tell that there were things wrong this time. The scene before him was different, but the same in one key aspect. Harry ignored the debris and sharp glass and metal around him and he knelt down and reached a hand out hesitatingly. His hand met with rapidly cooling skin and Harry found it difficult to suppress the rush of emotions that engulfed him.

Before him, eyes closed almost peacefully, was his last best friend and someone that Harry considered a sister. All the other people that Harry had considered family were dead, killed in War. Just like Hermione now had been. Hermione had found some children caught under a pile of rubble and had been trying to free and protect them when she had been hit with a stray piece of falling wreckage. In her few seconds of unconsciousness, she had been hit with a killing curse. The only thing Harry could be glad about was that her death had been instantaneous and painless. He couldn't have stood it if she had died a slow and agonising death.

Harry felt a sob tear itself from him as he ran his hands through Hermione's hair. She looked exactly like she had on that day. Harry couldn't take anymore and scrabbled away from the body, not noticing the debris and carnage around him as his emotions exploded from him.

His sobs began to wrack through his body and Harry squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he found himself staring up at his bedroom ceiling, his sheet tangled around him, sweat coating his body and tears freely running down his face. Harry sat up, his entire body shaking with emotion. He fought with his bedding for a few minutes, and finally managed to escape out onto his balcony.

The fresh air hit Harry like a bucket of cold water to the face. He roughly wipe the tears from his face and near-collapsed to the floor. Taking a few deep breaths, he carefully swung his feet over the edge of his balcony and leaned his forehead against the railing. The dream had been so real, and Harry hadn't felt himself let go of his emotions like that for the longest time. Not since Hermione had actually died, in fact. Harry guessed it was just seeing Sheppard and the other almost die today that brought all his worst memories to the front of his mind.

It might be painful to remember his friends, because all memories of them lead to the memory of him losing them, but it was something Harry forced himself to do. He needed to remember why he had fought so hard in the War in the first place. If Harry was to move on with his life, he needed to remember the ways the past had shaped him into who he was now.

Hermione would want him to be here on Atlantis – she would have loved to have been here. But Hermione couldn't be here. None of those who had died could be. But Harry knew that they lived on in his memory and that he would be dishonouring their memory if he didn't get the most out of his life. They would have wanted him to do as much as he could. And Harry was determined that he would. He was on the lost city of Atlantis, on an alien planet in a whole new galaxy. He would make his friends proud of him.


	6. Chapter 6

**It is not typical of me to write author notes in any of my stories unless I absolutely have to. I dislike author's notes because I feel that they disrupt the flow of a story and often contain useless information (unless you all want to know everything about my boring life that is). However, I feel that I should put one here.**

**I first of all would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read and review this story. It is very much appreciated.**

**I have had a number of reviews about how this is slow moving and some people said it is boring. Everyone is entitled to their views and I am sorry that this story doesn't appeal to everyone and that not everyone is enjoying it.**

**I have this entire story planned out, all five seasons. I also have two alternative sequels planned – one that follows the Legacy book series and one that doesn't. I have planned it so that it takes time for events to happen – it is unrealistic to me that Harry would suddenly become involved in all the main action. The Expedition to Atlantis is mainly about exploration, discovery and science. Being in science myself, I can tell you that more happens in the background than most people will ever know or see. **

**I am gradually adding in more and more information about Harry and his past. I didn't want to just dump it all in at once.**

**I hope this explains why I have chosen to make this story a 'slow burn' story, and I am sorry if some people don't enjoy it. But, as I said, I already have every episode and chapter planned out. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM me anytime and I will get back to you as soon as real life allows me to.**

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><p>It was a well known fact among the people that knew Harry that he was an incredibly light sleeper. Harry would deny to anyone's face that he slept lighter than any normal person, but he would agree with them every time the subject came up in his mind. Harry was well aware of his own faults and quirks, things which he had developed due to his childhood and the War. Sleeping lightly is something he had always done – when he was at the Dursleys', he had to keep a constant ear out in case his relatives screeched for him to do something or his Uncle was in a bad mood and wanted to take it out on his 'freak' nephew. This learnt behaviour had served him well during the War, when he had to be able to lightly catnap and wake up at a moment's notice to move to a new safe house or military base.<p>

It was Harry's tendency to wake up at every sound that reached him that he was cursing. The expedition was now settled into the Control Tower and it was time to start exploring the other areas of the Ancient City. After much debating among the scientists, a smaller tower that was next to the central Control Tower was decided to be the first area to be explored. According to the database, which was frustratingly vague and difficult to navigate through, this tower had smaller labs and a few storage rooms. It was only minor compared to what they could potentially find in other parts of the City, but it was a good start for the science teams.

Rather than waste energy by using the transporters to return to the Control Tower at the end of a day exploring, it was decided that they would camp out in the tower. The marines escorting them had done a sweep of the small tower before letting the scientists in. Harry and the others had done a quick exploration of the labs and then had argued about which rooms they should study first. The marines had stood back and quietly rolled their eyes at the excitement of the eggheads. It was finally decided that the group had enough marine escorts that they could split into four smaller groups and could all explore the labs that they wanted.

It had taken time to set themselves up in the labs and make sure that there wasn't any dangerous equipment lying around. By the time they had finally solved the power flow problem in the tower, it was getting late in the evening. The marines unilaterally decided that they would set up camp in a large room on the top floor, which had large windows and a balcony. By the time the scientists and engineers had all wandered into the 'base camp', the marines had everything set up. All the civilians had to do was find a space they liked and unroll their sleeping bags.

Dinner that night was a lively affair, with the marines joking around one camping stove and the scientists happily chatting about what they expected and hoped to find the next day. Everyone eventually drifted off, except the marines on guard duty by the doors. It was right now that Harry was mentally cursing his automatically heightened senses. He tried to block out the faint snores of some of his colleagues, the near-silent footsteps of the marine guards and the soft mutterings coming from Miko as she slept. It took a while, but Harry was finally able to block out all the minor sounds around him and fall into a light sleep.

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><p>Harry was one of the first to wake the next morning. He spent a few minutes looking up at the ceiling, watching as the first rays of light lit up the ceiling in a plethora of colours. Gracefully pulling himself up, he leaned over and pulled his boots on. Running a hand through his hair, Harry shook his jacket to get out the few wrinkles that had appeared overnight when he was using it as a pillow. He quickly rolled up his sleeping bag and shoved it away into his backpack. He wandered over to the few marines who were awake and helped himself to an energy bar and an apple for breakfast, snagging a few bottles of water to wash it down with.<p>

"Ok, so now everyone is finally awake, we can get started. We have," Radek checked his watch. "nine hours until we are due back. Make the most of our time here."

Harry slung his pack over his shoulder and wandered over to the marine that had been assigned to escort him to the lab he was going to study a few floors down. The marine was just finishing putting on his backpack and was clipping on his gun. Harry gave him a small nod and followed him out of the door. Wracking his brain, Harry tried to remember his name. It was Lieutenant Jones…..or Johns? Josephs? Johnson! It was Lieutenant Johnson. He vaguely remembered that Nate had mentioned that Johnson was going on the mini expedition and that Nate, Dan and Zack all considered that he was a brilliant marine.

Harry bounced into his assigned lab, now fully awake after his trip down several flights of stairs. Harry barely noticed his marine shadow as he set himself up guarding the door. Harry dumped his bag down beside the main console and dragged a chair from across the room and set it in front of the console. Kneeling down, he carefully ran his fingers around the edge of the console, trying to find the access panel. He found the edges, but couldn't open it because it was tightly wedged closed.

Harry held in a huff and leaned back. "Johnson." Harry called to the alert marine over his shoulder, who snapped his attention to the black-haired teen.

"Yes, sir?"

Harry almost grimaced at being called 'sir' by a soldier who was at least ten years older than he was. During the War, everyone looked to him for leadership and they had a variety of titles for him. He had managed to convince most of them to stop calling him the more ridiculous names, but other titles were stubbornly held onto. Here on Atlantis, Harry was extremely happy that he was just Harry, the computer genius, who was valued for his brain power. No one here knew about the many titles he had on Earth.

"I need to get this panel off, but it's stuck. May I borrow your knife?"

Harry watched the older man as he walked over to the kneeling teen and held his knife out, handle first. Harry carefully took it, nodding in thanks. He levered the panel open slowly, careful not to damage it or to cut himself. The panel popped open with a metallic clang and Harry grinned.

"Thanks, Johnson." Harry gave the knife back and it was swiftly put away. Seeing Johnson looking at him, Harry raised an eyebrow in question. "What's up?"

Johnson shook his head, a sheepish smile gracing his lips. "Sorry. It's just that for a minute, when you grinned, you reminded me of the look that my brother gets when he discovers something new. I mean, you look nothing like him, but he gets the same look and you are about the same age."

"Oh." Harry wasn't sure how to reply. "He's my age?"

Johnson shook his head, a wistful smile on his lips. "Not exactly, he's just turned 21. You're 18 right?" Harry gave a slight nod in confirmation. "Jamie is a college student – he's studying pre-med at Harvard."

"You must be really proud. That is a really good school."

"Yes, sir." Johnson had a huge grin on his face and Harry couldn't help but smile in response. "It's just my Mom, brother and I. We are all really proud of him. He is brilliant – I'm sure he will go places."

Harry turned back to the console, pulling crystals out. "You never know, he might be headhunted by the SGC in a few years time."

"That would be amazing." Harry could hear the pride in Johnson's voice and glanced back to see that he had resumed his place by the door. "I would be so proud of him – but this is a dangerous job. It will probably drive me to an early grave worrying about him."

There were a few minutes of silence as Harry pulled on various dead crystals. He was just reaching further in, his entire right arm buried in the console up to his shoulder, when Johnson's voice sounded throughout the room again.

"How about you?" Harry twisted around, his arm still in the console, a questioning look crossing his features. "I mean, what about your family? They must be worried about you – it's not like you can tell them where you are going and it could be a one-way trip for us all."

Harry felt himself stiffen and Johnson must have seen his reaction, because he quickly backtracked. "Not you need to tell me. I mean, I'm just a stranger to you. I have no right asking. I'm sorry."

Harry carefully pulled his arm out of the console and sat back. He turned to face the marine, a carefully blank expression on his face. He rested his feet flat in the floor and leaned his forearms on his knees. The older man was watching him carefully, an apologetic look on his face.

"It's ok. We are such a small community now that we are cut off from Earth. It is normal that people would be curious about the other people here." Harry gazed at the nervous and apologetic marine. "I don't have any family. I was emancipated and worked for the Pentagon before being offered my place here. So there is no one that I have to make up some story about where I'm going for."

A strange look crossed Johnson's face and he quickly looked away before Harry could analyse it. "Yes, sir."

Harry shook his head and moved back to the console. "And please stop calling me 'sir'. It makes me feel too old when someone older than me calls me that and I'm only 18. That means that everyone on Atlantis is older than me and shouldn't be calling me 'sir'. I'm just Harry."

Harry heard a quiet chuckle from behind him, but ignored it and reached back into the console. He allowed a grin to cross his features when he heard a quiet "Sure thing, Harry." from the marine guarding the doorway. If someone had told him a few months ago that he would be making friends with a group of marines and scientists whilst being on an internationally funded mission to an alien planet in another galaxy, he would have suggested that they receive psychiatric help. But he was now feeling ready to open himself up to a new group of people to watch his back. He still bore the emotional scars from the War, but he knew that the friends he had lost would want him to live his life as much as possible to honour their memory.

Harry was still trying to clear away the dead crystals and was moaning silently to himself a few hours later. This panel would probably need a whole new set of interface and power distribution crystals and as far as Harry could see it has been destroyed in what looked like an overload. Harry was just shoving himself further into the panel, his shoulders barely fitting, to see how much the console was damaged and if it was worth trying to salvage, when his radio crackled. Hearing his name, Harry huffed and twisted around until he could tap his radio.

"Yeah?"

"Harry, could you come up a floor and help translate some data for us?"

"No problem. I'll be there in a few minutes. Just let me grab my stuff."

Harry carefully pulled himself out of the console, avoiding the pile of burnt-out crystals he had dumped there. He shuffled them to the side so they were out of the way and grabbed his bag. He didn't even need to put his stuff away, because he hadn't even needed to unpack his tablet yet. The console was dead, burnt-out from a past power overload.

Harry swung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. Johnson was watching him with his eyebrows raised in question. "We need to head up a floor. They need me to translate some data for them."

"Sure." Johnson stepped out into the corridor, scoping it out carefully, before allowing Harry to follow him. Harry knew that he was just doing his job and he was happy that all the marines were so dedicated to keeping everyone safe, but he couldn't help but be slightly amused. Harry was a frontline soldier and leader in a war where physical violence could be inflicted with just a concentrated thought.

Harry silently followed Johnson up the narrow staircase to the floor above, watching the marine as he vigilantly checked out the corridor and kept glancing over his shoulder to check that Harry was following closely enough for his liking. Johnson stopped by the door of a large lab and remained there with another marine as Harry entered.

A large screen with Ancient writing scrolling down it covered one wall, a moderate sized control console stood a short distance from it. Another console, this one larger and bulkier than the first one stood in the centre of the room. Radek was stood with Miko at the smaller console, pointing to various bits of the scrolling text and having what appeared to be an in-depth conversation. Kavanaugh was fiddling with the few control crystals on the larger console, occasionally moving the interior crystals that Harry could see glowing inside an open access panel.

Kavanaugh glanced up when Harry entered the room, but went back to work, ignoring Harry as though he wasn't even there. Harry rolled his eyes at the pretentious scientist, but ignored him. He dumped his bag down by the door, just next to where Johnson had set himself up, and wandered across the room to the main console. Radek and Miko both paused in their conversation as soon as they saw him. Miko smiled at him shyly and Harry gave her a friendly nod in return.

"Harry." Harry turned his gaze to the shorter Czech scientist stood next to him. "We need you to help translate this data. You can read it faster than the rest of us, so will get through more than us."

Harry turned his gaze to the scrolling, bright Ancient text on the wall, absentmindedly stepping in front of the console, his hands automatically moving to the crystal buttons on top. His emerald eyes darted from side to side, taking in the Ancient symbols. Harry pulled his gaze away and was about to turn to get his tablet to type up the translation to be analysed by the scientists later, when Miko gently placed a laptop on the top of the console in a free space. Harry nodded his thanks and began to deftly type.

Harry was just finishing off one section of the data on the screen and was moving to access another file in the console database, when warnings flashed up on the screen. Frowning, Harry pulled away from the laptop and read the warnings carefully. It was a power flow disruption message, indicating that the flow of energy in the equipment was spiking. Turning around, Harry saw that Kavanaugh was still rearranging crystals and randomly moving them around. Harry could see the warning flashing on Kavanaugh's laptop, which was connected to the large console, and that Kavanaugh wasn't even bothering to check it. In fact, the machine was turned so that it wasn't even facing Kavanaugh.

"Kavanaugh." Harry called across the room to the pony-tailed man. He looked up and gave Harry a frosty glare. "Watch what you are doing. You are causing power spikes. You could overload that console." Kavanaugh ignored Harry. Harry frowned and walked over to the console. "Kavanaugh!"

Radek and Miko stopped their conversation on the other side of the room and looked over when Harry raised his voice. Harry grabbed the laptop and flipped it around so that it was facing Kavanaugh. "You are causing spikes in the power by randomly pulling out crystals and moving them."

Kavanaugh finally looked up at Harry, a dark glare aimed at the younger man. He reached over and closed the laptop, barely missing Harry's fingers. It was only thanks to Harry's quick reflexes that he avoided his fingers being squashed. The resulting bang caused the two marines by the door to stop their scoping of the corridor and turn around in surprise.

"I know what I'm doing." Kavanaugh's voice was sharp and condescending. "I don't need some uneducated child telling me how to do my job!"

Harry kept his face blank, pushing down the annoyance that was rapidly surfacing. "Look, I know that you know how to do your job. But I'm telling you that what you are doing is going to cause damage."

"What is the problem?"

Harry turned slightly as Radek came over, a questioning look crossing his face. Harry opened the laptop that Kavanaugh had slammed shut and began to explain to the Czech exactly what the issue was. Kavanaugh just ignored the other scientists around him and continued to fiddle with the internal crystal circuitry of the console. Radek was just up to speed and was about to speak, no doubt to stop Kavanaugh, when a large warning flashed back onto the laptop screen. Harry's eyes widened and he twisted around the console to pull Kavanaugh away. Kavanaugh stumbled back with a curse, almost falling to the floor. At the last minute, he reached out and steadied himself on an exposed part of the console.

Harry grabbed Kavanaugh's hand and pulled it away, meeting resistance from the bespectacled man. Harry was slammed back into the console just as a power spike surged. Harry pushed away from the console, but not before he was shocked. Everyone in the room watched in surprise as the console sparked and crackled before shutting down completely, smoking rising from inside the open access panel.

Harry rubbed his shoulder and arm that had slammed into the console, trying to get rid of the tingles running up and down his arm. Flexing his fingers, Harry allowed a glare to cross his normally calm features. He turned away from the annoying long-haired scientist, who was looking between Harry and the dead burnt-out console in shock.

"You okay Harry?"

Harry turned and saw Johnson looking at him in concern. Harry clenched and unclenched his hand. "I'm fine." Harry allowed the dark look to slip off his face as Johnson continued to look at him in concern.

"Right." The marine looked at his watch. "I think that is enough for this expedition. We should head back to the control tower."

Radek opened his mouth, but shut it after a glance at Harry. Nodding, he began to order the scientists to pack and get ready to leave. Looking at the marine still hovering around Harry, he pushed his glasses up and narrowed his eyes as Harry continued to rub his hand. "You should take Harry back to the control tower. We will finish up here and the rest of the marines can escort us back. I will get the control tower to power up the transporters for us."

Harry silently followed the older marine out of the lab and down the corridor towards the transporters. He ignored the concerned look on his companions face as he continued to rub his arm. The tingling had finally stopped and as far as Harry was concerned, he was no worse for wear. He suddenly realised that he didn't have his backpack on.

"I've left my bag in the lab."

Johnson turned and smiled at Harry, twisting around to show Harry that he had both his own bag on one shoulder and Harry's bag on the other. "It's ok. I grabbed it on the way out."

Harry reached over to get it from the soldier, relieving him of some of the weight he was carrying, but Johnson turned slightly so his back was blocked from Harry. Grinning at the teen, he shrugged. "I'll carry it. You were injured, and McKay will be pissed enough when he finds out what happened. I don't want his fury directed at me as well. He can be scary."

Harry hid his grin, highly amused by the marine's statement. From what Nate, Dan and Zack had told him, the majority of the marines had a healthy respect for the 'geeks, nerds and eggheads' on Atlantis. They also told him that a lot of them thought McKay could be scary when he started off on his hissy fits. Everyone knew that Rodney was the smartest man on Atlantis and he had access to all the environmental controls for the city. Annoy him enough and you could suddenly find yourself without hot water or temperature control in your room.

Harry was distracted from his thoughts by the quiet hiss of the transporter doors opening in the control tower and he quickly exited after a gesture from Johnson telling him to go first. He turned to get his bag from the marine, but was stopped by Elizabeth's voice.

"Harry." Harry turned and saw Elizabeth heading towards him, a look of concern on her face. Harry almost scowled when he saw Dan and Nate silently slinking behind her. Elizabeth stopped in front of Harry, looking him over. "Radek told me what happened. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. It was a minor shock, nothing more." Harry glanced up at the control room. "Where's Rodney? I need to report in to him."

Elizabeth gave a concerned frown. "Dr McKay is in the infirmary. He was hit by a Wraith stunner on his last mission."

Harry blinked in surprise. "Is he ok?"

Elizabeth smiled slightly at Harry's concern. "Yes. He was just stunned. In fact," Elizabeth glanced at her watch. "he should be out of the Infirmary anytime now. The effects should have worn off by now."

"Good. I'll just head to my lab then. Rodney can find me there when he wants my report."

"Not so fast Harry." Elizabeth shook her head in exasperation. "I want you to go to the Infirmary and get checked out. You were shocked by a power surge."

Harry opened his mouth to argue that he was fine and didn't need checking, when Dan beat him to it. "Ma'am. I will be happy to escort him to the Infirmary and make sure he gets checks out by Dr Beckett."

"And I'll take his bag to his room for him and save him a journey." Nate chimed in, grinning when Harry's gaze darkened in annoyance slightly, before he cleared his features and gave a small nod in defeat.

"Good." Elizabeth turned to Johnson as he handed over Harry's bag to his fellow marine. "Will you find some other marines to cover guard duty of the Gateroom for a short time?"

Harry waited, a carefully blank look on his face, as Weir and Johnson both wandered off, Weir heading to the control room and Johnson towards the armoury. As they both disappeared and it was just him and the two marines, Harry allowed a scowl to cross his face.

"Traitors." Harry looked at both Dan and Nate with a dark glare.

"It's for your own good Harry." Dan held his hands up in surrender. "We all know that you wouldn't get yourself checked out, even if you had an arm hanging off. This is the only way to make you go." Dan gestured playfully to himself. He was wearing his full uniform, weapons included, for his shift in the Gateroom. "By armed escort."

Harry's glare got darker as Nate laughed along with the other soldier. "Just wait until we next spar." Harry hissed. "I'm gonna kick both of your arses!"

Nate caught the dark look Harry was sending him, the laughter dying in his throat. Shifting nervously, he slung Harry's bag over his shoulder. "I'm just, gonna, you know, take your bag to your room."

Harry smirked as his friend virtually ran away from him, muttering to himself nervously. Turning to his other traitorous friend, Harry raised an eyebrow as Dan held up his hands in surrender. Dan gave a slight chuckle. "You can be scary sometimes Harry. And knowing that you can beat the crap out of us and have an IQ higher than all of us combined makes us a little bit nervous."

Harry shook his head. "Please, you guys like to play dumb, but I know you are all smart. This expedition is about the best and brightest the world has to offer. You guys are here for a good reason. You should appreciate and value yourselves more." Harry looked at his friend as he bashfully looked at his feet. Clearing his throat, Harry continued on, trying to escape an emotional moment. He wasn't used to being so open with people, not since his friends from the War were all still alive. "Right, lets get this over with."

Harry traipsed down the corridors, dodging around scientists, soldiers and Athosians as everyone bustled about the tower, going about their daily business. The crowd thinned as he got closer to the Infirmary and there was no one in the corridor outside the dreaded room, save for a nurse who smiled at Harry as she passed him. Harry nodded to her absently as he entered the room. He was immediately greeted with a warm Scottish accent.

"So you needed to be escorted by an armed soldier to make you come this time, eh lad?"

Harry turned and saw Carson stood next to a bed a few metres away from where Harry was stood. Carson was shaking his head in exasperation, but had a contradictory smile plastered across his face. Harry sighed quietly, but obediently pulled himself up to onto the bed Carson was patting. He opened his mouth to make a sarcastic comeback, but a loud and obnoxious voice carried from the other end of the room and Harry turned to see Rodney arguing with one of Carson's ever-present nurses.

Carson sighed. "I'm going to go and deal with Rodney, before his shouts reach the level where the entire city can hear him. I want to check your heart to make sure the shock you got didn't do any unseen damage. So, take your shirt off and the nurse will attach the monitors. I'll be back in a moment."

Harry froze for a minute when Carson mentioned the nurse attaching the monitors. "Carson."

Carson turned when he heard Harry's tone, a confused look on his face. Harry saw the moment when Carson realised what Harry was asking and why. Harry had various scars littered around his body, some from the War, others from his time at Hogwarts and the rest from the tender care of his relatives. Harry wasn't ashamed of any of his scars, but they were private. He didn't want everyone on Atlantis to be gossiping about how he got them. He didn't care if strangers saw them, they didn't know him well enough to gossip about them. And there were a few people on Atlantis that he trusted to see them and not talk about them with others.

Carson waved away the nurse, who tactfully disappeared through a door to the shared nurses' office, closely followed by the nurse who had been attending Rodney, leaving just the doctor, Rodney and Dan stood around. Harry unzipped his jacket and tossed it to Dan to hold for him as Carson crossed the room to berate the irate Canadian. Harry was just pulling off his t-shirt and throwing it to his soldier friend, when Carson returned to his side, Rodney following closely behind him.

Carson had seen every single one of Harry's scars during the mandatory physicals before they left Earth. He also knew every detail of the excuses in Harry's file for each and every scar. A lot of the older ones – ones he would date to being gained during Harry's childhood – had poor excuses for how Harry had gotten them. His relatives certainly were creative when it came to their ridiculous explanations. Carson couldn't share his thoughts about them with anyone because it would not only break patient confidentiality, but he knew Harry was extremely private and wouldn't want people prying into his business.

Carson attached the heart monitors and Harry watched as he turned on the machine to check that his heart wasn't damaged when he had gotten shocked. Harry shifted back on the bed so he was fully sat down and not just perched on the edge. He avoided the other men's gazes as he watched his steady and calm heartbeat on the screen. He could feel Rodney's and Dan's gazes tracing the scars on his back, and saw Rodney carefully looking away out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head slightly and saw Dan gripping his gun tighter, an angry look crossing his face.

Harry allowed Carson to fuss about him, checking his heartbeat, blood pressure and whatever else he wanted to. He avoided looking at his marine friend. Out of the three men surrounding him, Harry knew that seeing his scars was probably having more of an effect on the soldier. Carson had seen the scars enough times and Harry remembered Rodney mentioning an unhappy childhood. Harry had never seen any scars on Rodney that indicated physical abuse as a child, but he knew enough to know he was emotionally neglected by his parents. But Dan had never been close enough to Harry to see his scars or had enough time to study them and come to the right conclusion as to where he got them.

Harry knew the source of the scars on his back was easy to guess. They were straight lines crisscrossing over his back. Harry was a fast healer thanks to his magic and the scars were minimal, but the faint silvery lines were all over his back. It was easy to guess that they had come from the straight edges of a belt. It had been a great favourite of Harry's uncle when he was drunk. He hadn't hit Harry with it often, only when he was really drunk and Harry had done accidental magic, but he had hit him hard with it.

"Elizabeth told me what happened." Rodney pulled his gaze away from Harry's back and moved from his place at the end of the bed to right next to Carson in front of Harry. "I wanted to hear what happened directly from both you and Kavanaugh."

Harry was grateful for the distraction offered by Rodney, allowing him to block out his friend still studying the visible scars on Harry's body and Carson removing the dressing on the small cut on his forehead, taking advantage of Harry sitting still to change the dressing and check how it was healing.

Harry's green gaze met Rodney's bright blue one. "Radek asked me to translate some files they had accessed on a console for him, because I can translate faster than the others. Kavanaugh was at another console, pulling and moving the internal crystals. I was done translating one file and was moving onto another one, when warnings flashed up. I tried to tell Kavanaugh, but he ignored me. That stubborn git wasn't even checking his laptop to monitor the readings. I saw the power surge warning, and pulled Kavanaugh out of the way. But I got pushed back into the console and got shocked."

Rodney huffed. "That bloody ingrate. I have never worked with such a moronic, self-centred, stubborn – "

Carson cut Rodney's rant off. "Well, lad, you don't seem to be hurt in any way. Your cut is healing nicely as well. It has scabbed faster than I thought it would. But your file does say you are a fast healer. Another few days and we can take the dressing off. We'll leave it on for now just as a precaution, in case it opens again."

Harry nodded, allowing Carson to pull the monitors off his chest. He reached over to grab his t-shirt from a silent Dan, but was met with resistance. He looked over and saw that Dan was still holding tightly onto the shirt, his eyes locked on Harry's hand as he was pulling his shirt. Harry gripped tighter when he saw that Dan's narrowed gaze had been caught by the words 'I must not tell lies' etched into the back of Harry's hand. It had been there for a number of years and had fade slightly, but not enough to make it indistinguishable. The slight tan Harry had gained over the years had made it stand out more that it would have normally.

Carson saw what Dan was staring at and cleared his throat loudly to draw attention. Dan's gaze snapped to the Scotsman, allowing Harry to pull his shirt out of the vice grip and yank it on over his head. Harry refused to look at anyone in the room and stared at the wall as he arranged his jacket. He was thankful to the doctor, who was distracting the marine from Harry's scars by making pointless conversation. Harry was able to slip out of the room just as Carson was asking Dan how his control over Ancient technology was improving since he had his gene therapy. Harry could feel all three sets of eyes following him as he silently left and he was grateful that none of them made to follow him. He needed some space to himself right now.

* * *

><p>Harry grinned in triumph as the large screen lit up, showing a copy of the laptop screen that it was connected to. He hit a few keys on the laptop and pulled up the screensaver. It had been specially designed by some of the scientists when they had a few moments in Antarctica. It was a parody of an old-fashioned cinema banner, telling everyone who saw it that it this room was the dedicated cinema of Atlantis. Now that everyone was settled in with their personal rooms, offices, work shifts and whatnot, the recreation areas were finally being completed. The gym and sparring room had obviously been completed first, and the scientists had set up a sort of common room just down the corridor from the cinema. It had all sorts of recreation activities in there, ranging from shelves of books that Harry didn't even know they had brought with them to chess sets and boards games. There was enough room for all of the scientists and marines to be in there at the same time – the only room besides the mess hall and the cinema that could hold so many people that they had secured so far. The marines had somehow found couches and chairs for everyone to be able to sit in from all over the city. The cinema was the last area to be set up.<p>

"You got it all sorted them?"

Harry turned, a grin still plastered across his face, as he heard the question from behind him. He knew that it was Nate – he could instantly recognise his friends' voices. Harry almost faltered as he caught himself thinking of them as his friends without much thought. But he was glad – he felt that he was ready to let some people deeper into his life. He couldn't have chosen a better group of people. Nate, Zack and Dan were all good men.

"Yeah. It's all ready to go." Harry glanced around and saw Zack stop next to Nate. Dan was at the back of the room, directing the groups of marines as they traipsed in and out of the large room with couches. Every so often, Dan would look over at Harry, but looked away quickly so he wouldn't get caught staring. Harry kept in a sigh at his friend's behaviour. He hadn't spoken to Dan all day, not since he had been in the Infirmary.

"You need to give him some time."

Harry's gaze snapped to Zack, who was watching him with a worried expression. Zack saw the questioning look. "Dan hasn't told me anything." Zack was quick to reassure Harry, knowing how private he was. "But I could guess that something was bugging him when he got back from escorting you to the Infirmary. I knew that you were ok, so it wasn't anything to do with that. I took an educated guess."

"It wasn't too difficult." Nate's quiet voice chimed in. "We, erm, we've seen some of the scars. The one on your hand and some on your arms when you wear short sleeved t-shirts."

Harry looked away from his friends. He felt a connection to these guys. It was almost like a family connection that he had never felt with his own blood relatives and hadn't felt since Hermione and the Weasleys. At first, he had ignored the feeling, thinking it was too soon to allow himself to move on – almost as if he was dishonouring his first family's memory. But he had thought about it since coming to Atlantis and realised he was being ridiculous. His family would want him to be happy and would be pleased he had found himself another group of people to be part of.

Whilst Harry had been contemplating, the room had suddenly cleared, leaving just Harry and his three friends. Dan cautiously approached the group, an apprehensive look on his face. Harry suddenly felt bad, realising that Dan was worried about how Harry would react to Dan knowing a secret of his.

"Where have all the marines gone?"

"They've all gone to get the other half of the couches from a storage room we had put them in. It is right down at the bottom of the tower, and isn't really close to the transporters but was the only empty storage room big enough. They'll be at least 10 minutes." Dan took a deep breath. "Look Harry –"

Harry cut him off. "It's ok, Dan. I've been thinking about it and I'm ready to tell you guys." Harry took a deep breath. "I know you've all seen my scars – the ones on my arms at least. There are more – a fair few more. You guys remember all the trouble in England over the last few years? The really bad terror attacks?" Harry saw them all nod. "Well, I was one of the Resistance fighters. The War was about blood purity and the leader of the opposition would have happily killed all those he deemed as 'impure'. He gained a lot of power and the entire Government was corrupted or in fear for their lives. The Resistance fought all the way."

"Seriously?" All three men were staring at Harry. Nate's voice was shocked. "You were one of the guerilla Resistance fighters?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah." Harry quickly cut off their questions. "That is a story for another day. Some of my scars come from that. Others I got whilst I was at school – sporting injuries and whatnot."

"And the rest?" Dan's voice was calm, but his eyes had a furious glint.

"I got them during the tender care of my relatives. My parents died when I was a baby and I was given to my Aunt and Uncle to raise. They….disliked me."

Harry looked away from his friends, not wanting to evaluate their expressions. Zack's voice cut across the silence like a knife. "I'm adopted."

The three other men looked at the marine, who grinned sheepishly. "My biological birth mother had me when she was 16 and she was a drug addict. I was taken away from her when I was 4." Zack shook his head. "I was never hit by her, but I remember the fear when she was high, the hunger when she spent the money on drugs instead of food, but most of all I remember the guilt. Like it was somehow my fault that she didn't love me. I was adopted by a Spanish immigrant family when I was 5. I stuck out like a sore thumb" Zack playfully tugged his blonde hair. "but I had a wonderful childhood from the moment I entered their house."

"Nothing will change." Dan smiled at the teenager in front of them. "It's not like we are going to treat you any differently now that we know. Other than having the urge to travel light-years to our home galaxy to teach your relatives a lesson, we are still the same as before."

Harry gave a soft smile, but carefully blanked his face as the other marines came huffing into the room with the rest of the seating. "Thanks guys. I want you to know that you can ask me about them and I will answer you." Harry eyes the rowdy marines arranging couches. "In private."

Dan turned to the crowd in the room with one last grin at Harry. "So, guys. Looks like we are done here." Dan glanced at his watch. "Who's up for getting some dinner?"

Harry shook his head with a smile as the group of marines gave a chorus of various agreements. He had no idea how it happened, but he suddenly found himself sat in the mess hall at a large table, right in the middle of a group of loud and cheerful marines. Harry felt himself relaxing completely for the first time in a while and allowed himself to get swept into the camaraderie of the group of soldiers. Harry hadn't been surrounded by a group of soldiers and warriors since the War and felt himself fitting right back in with that kind of group. He loved been a part of the group of scientists, where he was exercised intellectually, but being in a group of soldiers reminded him of what he truly was deep down. A warrior.

The group of soldiers stayed well past the time it took for them to finish dinner, various marines coming and going as they left to start their duties or arrived having just finished them. There was an easy sense of companionship and humour around the table and not once did they treat Harry as an outsider to their group, which Harry was in a way. He came from the 'geek, nerd and egghead' half of Atlantis and these men and women were from the 'soldier and general hard-ass' half. But they all included him. It suddenly occurred to Harry that they probably considered him halfway between the two groups – a nerd that could beat the crap out of them if he wanted to. Harry was amused by the thought.

Harry reluctantly stood up, catching the marines' attention unintentionally. Feeling dozens of eyes on him, Harry explained. "I'm going to head down to the gym and work out before bed. I won't have the chance to jog tomorrow, so I'm making up for it now."

Dan stood up, followed swiftly by not only Nate and Zack, but half a dozen others as well. "Not a bad idea." Dan looked around the group and his eyes lit up. "We should head to the sparring room. That would be fun."

Harry stopped by his room and got changed, meeting up only a matter of minutes later with the rest of the marines who had volunteered to spar with Harry and his friends. Harry was surprised to find that the group waiting in the room was larger than he expected. It seemed that word had gotten around the gossipy marines about the impromptu sparring and training session, and some had turned up to watch or to have a quick lesson.

"Hey Potter." Harry turned and saw a marine waving him over to the other side of the room. Harry dumped his bag in a corner where a small pile had been started, shoving his trainers in it, before padding bare-footed over to the smiling marine waving at him. Harry got to the other side of the room, dodging around people warming up and stretching. When he got past the crowd, Harry saw that a pseudo-rack had been set up against the wall, with wooden weapons all over it.

Seeing where Harry was looking, the soldier was quick to explain. "The Athosians carved us some training weapons and others were brought from Earth so we could practice." The marine paused. "I know that you practice mixed martial arts, but I don't know if you can use any weapons."

Harry stepped closer, observing the pretend weapons. He answered absently. "Yeah, I have some experience with various kinds of blades and stick weapons."

The marine smirked. "Great! Johnny!" The soldier called across the room to a younger soldier, causing everyone to become quiet. "Potter here can use blades. Why don't you spar with him? I know you have been complaining about finding some new competition."

The brunette marine crossed the room, watched by everyone in silence. He eyes Harry up and down, before a smirk crossed his face. He nodded. "Sure. Why don't you warm up and I'll choose the weapon?"

Harry gave a curt nod, moving across the room to where his friends were grouped together. He began to warm up and stretch in silence, watching as his opponent spoke quietly to some of his own companions. Harry saw him occasionally shake his head and smirk.

"He thinks you have no chance of winning." Nate's voice was quiet, but there was an amused edge. "Not all of the marines saw the tapes of you kicking ass, and some absolutely refuse to believe one of the scientists can beat a trained marine in any kind of combat."

Dan snorted. "He is going to get a major shock. This is going to be funny. Johnny doesn't have as much respect for the science staff as he should do. He does his job well enough, but he should be a little bit more respectful to the people keeping Atlantis running."

"This is his first assignment with scientists. He's not like the rest of us who have come from the SGC or one of the offworld outposts – we have learnt to respect the science staff. They have saved our asses loads of times." Zack shook his head.

Harry finished stretching and saw that Johnny had chosen a mock-up of a sword and was making a show of waving it around and getting his stance. Harry rolled his eyes at the stupid behaviour of the marine. He had been taught by multiple martial arts and fighting masters and every one of them had taught him to be humble about his abilities. His talents were to save lives, his own and other peoples', not to show off.

Harry perused the wooden carving of swords, assessing their quality and likeness to the real thing. He finally settled on an understated katana. He had fond memories of a small Japanese man teaching him to use the blade. The Resistance had allies all over the world and Harry had trained with many of them, both magical and Muggle skills. Harry pulled down the katana and tested its weight in his hands. It was actually fairly accurate and was only slightly lighter than his own katana back on Earth.

Harry stood in the middle of the room, the marines all bunched up by the door so that there was plenty of room for the two opponents to move around. Harry rolled his eyes as Johnny brandished his own sword in what he thought was a threatening manner. Harry just thought he looked stupid, but refrained from saying so. Harry held the fake-blade loosely but securely as he bowed his head. Harry frowned when he saw Johnny reluctantly return his bow with a minimal amount of bending. It showed a lack of respect for Harry and demonstrated that the marine didn't think Harry was a worthy opponent.

Harry took a deep breath, blocked out all his emotion and allowed his instincts to wash over him and take control. Harry had quickly learnt that thinking too much was a bad thing – you had to go with your gut and instincts. They could react faster than the brain could.

The first move was made by Johnny, something that Harry had been expecting and planning on. He ducked to the side and swiftly darted around and Johnny gave an onslaught of stabs with his wooden blade. Harry easily dodged around everyone, his mind automatically assessing the soldier's skill. His easy movement with the blade showed Harry that he knew what hew as doing and that he had some skill, but he was too eager to win and to beat Harry. That coupled with his belief that Harry wasn't a worthy or talented opponent led to Johnny being sloppy in his movements.

Harry waited, ducking gracefully around every jab of the blade, for Johnny to make a minute mistake. His opportunity came within about two minutes of the start of the match. Harry pivoted away from the blade flying at him, and took an unexpected step towards the other man. Not expecting the move, Johnny couldn't move back fast enough and Harry took the opportunity. He hit Johnny's blade arm hard enough to make him cry out in pain and drop the mock-sword. Harry swept Johnny's feet from under him and pressed the blade up against Johnny's throat.

Harry had clearly won the match within a few minutes, but his opponent couldn't seem to accept the loss. Harry was pulling his fake-blade away from the marine and was turning away, when Johnny kicked out and Harry was forced down onto one knee. Angry at the dishonest and sore loser, Harry dropped his wooden katana and grabbed the man's leg as it made another kick towards him. Harry yanked on the leg and hit just behind the knee, dragging downwards as he did. A cry of pain indicted that the other man was feeling the pain that Harry had intended. The leg was viciously pulled back as Harry rose to his feet.

Johnny was fully glaring at the younger man now and Harry returned the dark look with a carefully blank one. This seemed to infuriate the soldier and he threw a punch at Harry's face, aimed directly for his nose. Harry twisted to the side at the last possible moment and grabbed the arm as it flew past his face. Harry gripped the wrist and twisted it harshly around, forcing it back in an unnatural way. Kicking out at the marine's already hurt knee, Harry forced Jonny down, using his bent wrist to control him. Johnny swore in pain and struggled, but gave up when Harry pressed the wrist viciously again. Johnny couldn't move and was under Harry's control.

Harry allowed a scowl to cross his normally blank face. His voice came out as a hiss. "That was stupid. I won, fair and square. And instead of being gracious and acting like an adult, you throw a tantrum and attack me when my back is turned."

A new voice sounded from behind the silent group of marines by the doorway. "What is going on here?"

Harry turned and saw the military commander, Major Sheppard, had entered the room with Teyla, both of them carrying a pair of sticks and bags. Harry released the prone marine, careful to blank his features. He straightened up and gave a swift reply, looking the soldier at his feet in the eye as he did.

"Nothing, Major. We were just practicing some sparing, Sir." Harry saw the confusion in Johnny's gaze. He didn't know why Harry wasn't ratting him out to his commanding officer. The truth was, Harry didn't see a point. This way, Johnny learnt his lesson and Harry wouldn't be seen as a tattletale. Harry leaned down and pulled Johnny to his feet, who was hesitant to accept Harry's hand but had no choice if he didn't want a scene. Harry held on for a second as Johnny was on his feet, meeting the eyes of the soldier with cold chips of emerald. He lowered his voice so only the man next to him could hear. "If you ever do that again, I will do a hell of a lot more damage next time."

Harry didn't even wait for a reply as he grabbed his bag and wandered out of the room. He could feel the gaze of all the marines on his back as he left the room, flanked by his friends, but chose to ignore them. Harry had made his point: the scientists were to be respected, because you never knew when one of them would turn around and kick your arse if you didn't.

* * *

><p>Harry reluctantly pulled himself out of his warm and comfortable bed, wincing slightly as his feet touched the cooler floor. A quickly glance through the open curtains through bleary eyes showed that the sun was just peaking over the edge of the horizon, bathing the sea in a faint pink and orange glow. Harry dragged himself mindlessly across the room, stripping as he did and thoughtlessly using his magic to make the dropped clothes fly into the laundry basket hidden in a small recess cupboard in his bathroom.<p>

Harry was still half asleep as he turned the shower on, but was shocked awake as he stepped into the glass contained unit. The Ancient that had occupied his room before him didn't have much in way of bedroom furniture, but they had certainly enjoyed the luxury of a good bathroom. The shower unit was made of clear glass and was large, as was the sink. The toilet was tucked away in an unobtrusive corner. But the best part was the awesome bath – it was large and had many different settings for the jets placed inside it. Harry had only had showers so far due to the lack of time, but he couldn't wait to try out that bath. Harry's thoughts froze and only swears were stuttering through his brain as he stepped into the stream of water. It was like stepping into a rain of ice.

Harry swore loudly and colourfully in Magis, his knowledge of foul words courtesy of some of the more hardcore soldiers in the Resistance. He had no idea why his shower was freezing cold when it was fine just yesterday and he hadn't done anything to piss off Rodney, Radek or any of the other scientists that could access the environmental controls for his room. It was a rubbish start to the day, and Harry would have to report it to the engineers responsible for the maintenance of the environmental systems.

It wasn't the first time Harry had to wash using cold water. His Aunt and Uncle would only allow him minimal time in a tepid shower, and sometimes his bullying cousin would spend so much time in the shower before Harry that he would deliberately use all the hot water that the old boiler had, forcing Harry to have a cold wash. And during the War, some of the places they had bunked in didn't even have the luxury of showers, let alone hot water. Harry was able to put up with the cold water, it was just a shock first thing in the morning and it had been a while since he had to do so.

Harry tried to be as fast as possible in his frigid shower and, had he been paying more attention to his surroundings instead of getting out of the cold water stream as fast as possible, then he wouldn't have been so surprised when his door chimed. An unfortunate result, demonstrating to Harry that the universe did, in fact, dislike him, was the lathered shampoo dripping from his hair into his eyes. Harry swore and scrubbed rapidly at his eyes, trying to get the stinging liquid out. He rapidly rinsed off the rest of him and virtually ran out of the shower, glaring back at it. Pulling a towel off the rack and securing it around his waist, Harry stomped to the door and whacked the open crystal.

"What do you want?"

The three marines stood in front of him looked at him in surprise. Harry saw Nate and Zack glance down, automatically cataloguing his scars. The conversation with them was still too fresh for them to not be curious about his scars. Dan just met Harry's glare and raised an eyebrow at him. All three of the marines knew that Harry was a reserved and guarded person, but he had gradually been opening up to them since they had met at Antarctica. Dan was glad – Harry was a good person and Dan knew he needed to allow his friends in more. Besides the three marines, Harry had developed a strong friendship with the good doctor, Carson Beckett, and they had bonded over everything Scottish and the joy of a good cup of tea. Harry had also become somewhat attached to the grumpy Canadian Head of Science, McKay (who seemed to have more patience and time for Harry than anyone else in his department for a reason only he and God knew).

"What the hell happened to you?" Dan looked at Harry's slightly red eyes and smirked. "You have a fight with your shower?"

Nate jumped in before Harry could answer. "And since when does Mr Reserved wander around topless in front of anyone?"

"Since I was attacked by my shampoo and was angry that it tried to blind me. And you three aren't just anyone. You're my friends." Harry ignored the smiles directed at him. This was the first time Harry had called them his friends to their faces. "I'm going to get dressed."

Harry grabbed a clean set of clothes, grateful that he had a uniform so it was easy to dress every morning. He ducked into the bathroom, stood around a corner so he couldn't be seen and could leave the door open. Pulling on his clothes, he asked the soldiers what they wanted again.

"Well, we came to see if you wanted to grab some breakfast with us." Zack's voice floated through the open doorway. "We know you start soon, and I've got patrol in about an hour. Nate is free for another couple of hours until his Gateroom duty starts and Dan has just finished his shift and was gonna grab breakfast before he went to bed."

Harry exited the bathroom fully dressed and wandered over to his bedside cabinet. He opened the cupboard and pulled his trusty backpack out, shoving his tablet into it and securely closing it. Resting it on the end of his bed, Harry sat down and pulled on his boots. Once they were laced up and he had the backpack over his shoulder, he quickly made his bed, a habit he had learnt in childhood. The Dursleys made his tidy his own bedding as well as their own as soon as he was dressed.

"Let's go then." Harry smiled at his friends, who had all drifted over to his windows and was looking enviously at his balcony. Harry wandered out of his room, hearing the door hiss closed as they all left. The trip to the mess was quiet, the corridors almost empty. Most of the city wasn't awake yet and there were just a few marines around who had just finished patrol or would be starting soon. Harry was used to early starts – he had to be up early to get his chores done at his relatives' and there was no late morning sleep-ins during the War.

"Hey Matt." Harry nodded to the soldier manning the kitchens.

"Hey Harry." Matt smiled at the computer tech and gave a friendly nod to the marines gathered around him. "It's just cereal this morning, I'm afraid. The machines in the kitchen are on the fritz."

Harry held back a groan. He wasn't in the mood for cereal. He really just wanted some toast so he could eat quickly and get to his office to start on the pile of work he had to do. Harry glanced around the room and saw the few other early-risers were also scowling at their bowls of cold cereal. He saw a few drinking from slightly steaming mugs and raised an eyebrow. Matt, seeing where he was looked, smirked.

"We have used some of the camp stoves we have to make hot water for drinks, mainly coffee- I swear, the city runs on the stuff. But we have only been able to heat some water because we have to be careful with the stoves. They are for emergencies only. We don't want to waste them."

Harry nodded absently, grabbing himself some cereal with a small scowl and pouring himself a large cup of tea from the flasks. Throwing himself into a chair at a table in a quiet corner, he crunched his cereal and cold milk unenthusiastically. He glanced up when he saw the others joining him, raising his eyebrows when he saw Nate's choice of cereal.

Nate, seeing the looks he was getting, swallowed his mouthful and smiled sheepishly at his bowl of chocolate cereal. "It reminds me of my little brother."

Harry suddenly blinked. "I just realised that I don't know anything about your families." Harry gave a small grin, shaking his head. "What a bad friend I am."

"Nah, we could have asked as well." Dan shook his head and then grinned. "I'll go first then shall I." Dan put on a mock-serious look. "I'm Captain Daniel Sokolov and I'm 26. I'm from California and my Great-Grandfather was from Russia. I speak Russian. My dad was a Doctor, but he died about three years back of a heart attack. My Mom is a nurse – she met Dad at the hospital they both worked at back then. I'm an only child."

Nate cleared his throat in a pompous way, which was offset by the fact he was poking at his chocolate cereal. "I'm Lt Nathaniel Brannon. I'm 25 and from New York." Nate gave a huge grin at the mention of his home. "My Mother died when I was a baby, so it was just my Dad and I for a long while. He's a lawyer. He got remarried when I was 16 and I have a half-brother who is 6."

Harry eyed Nate's dark brown hair. It was dark, but not as dark as his own midnight locks. "Where is your family from originally?"

"My Dad's family came from Ireland to America a couple of generations ago. My Mother was half-Indian, half-English." Nate gave a small chuckle. "I guess my Dad has a thing for Indian women, because my step-mother is Indian. He met her when we were on holiday there."

They all laughed in agreement and then turned to Zack, who raised an eyebrow. "You already know about me."

Dan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but not enough. Come on, share."

Zack gave a put-upon sigh." Fine. If you must know." He couldn't help himself from laughing along with them at his melodramatic tone and gestures. "I'm Lt Zachary Ortiz. I'm from Texas. I was taken from my druggie biological mother when I was 4 and adopted by a Spanish immigrant family when I was 5. I have 5 older adoptive sisters. My parents couldn't have any more children due to complications with my youngest sister but they wanted a boy as well. So, they adopted me. My Dad is a jeweller and my Mom helps him out."

"Wow, 5 older sisters. That must be fun."

Zack grinned. "The youngest is 6 years older than me, so I was the baby of the family. I was a spoiled when I was younger."

Harry poked at his cereal. It had gone soggy and he hated damp cornflakes. He looked up and saw everyone looking at him. Swallowing, he pushed down the urge to just leave. He had asked them to share with him and it wouldn't be fair to not reciprocate. He took a sip of his tea and shoved his bowl of hideous cornflakes away.

"I'm Harry Potter. I'm 18. I'm from Surrey, England. I'm an only child and my parents were killed by a terrorist when I was a baby. I was raised by my maternal Aunt and her husband. They are my only relatives, beside their son. I haven't seen them in about three years, when they signed my emancipation papers for me. I went to a private boarding school in Scotland when I was 11."

"And you were a guerilla Resistance fighter in the civil unrest in England."

Harry nodded, looking around to make sure no one was close enough to hear. "Yes, I was. But could we talk about this another time? Maybe somewhere private?"

Dan jumped in before anyone could say anything else. "Yeah, of course."

Harry gulped the last of his tea in relief. He stood up. "Great. I've got to head to my lab now and actually start some work. I'll see you all later." Harry went to grab his bowl to take it back to the kitchen staff, but Nate got there before him. Harry gave him a grateful grin and wandered out of the mess hall. He joined the small queue of people at the end of the corridor waiting for the transporter. He was still waiting ten minutes later and looked around the person in front of him to see what the problem was.

There were two marines in the transporter, frowning at the control panel glowing on the wall. Harry saw one of them tapping the screen, jabbing harder than was necessary due to frustration. Harry slipped past the queue of marines and stood in the transporter doorway. The marines inside didn't notice him and carried on bickering about whether they were using the control panel correctly. Harry held back his amused grin, deciding that poking at angry marines first thing in the morning would be like poking an angry bear – stupid and likely to get him mauled. As the marines turned to face one another to argue some more, Harry saw that one of them was Johnson, who finally noticed Harry out of the corner of his eye.

"Harry." Johnson gave the teen a smile. "How are you doing?"

Harry knew he was referring to the shock Harry had gotten on their outing to a neighbouring tower. "I'm fine. It was minor and Carson – Dr Beckett – cleared me. What's wrong here?"

"This damn transporter isn't working." Johnson glared back at the panel next to his face.

"I'll have a quick look. May I?" Harry gestured to the panel and was pleased that both Johnson and the other marine inside nodded enthusiastically and moved out of the way to allow him to pass. The marine that Harry didn't know the name of moved to speak to the other soldiers patiently waiting outside, and Johnson hovered in the doorway.

Harry moved so he was close to the screen and frowned as he studied it. He may know a lot about the crystal makeup of the City and Ancient coding, but the actual science behind how all the advanced devices worked was beyond him. He couldn't even begin to describe how the transporter actually transported people and objects between locations beyond his minimal knowledge of science. Harry accessed the controls for the device and his frown deepened as the screen suddenly went dead.

"Well, that's annoying." Harry glared at the panel and blinked as sudden light blared. The panel continued to flicker on and off for a few moments. Harry turned to the marines staring at him around Johnson. "Sorry guys. There are some kind of power fluctuations going on. Hold on a moment."

Harry pulled his radio out of his jacket pocket and fitted it into his ear, tapping it lightly. "Control, this is Potter. We have an issue with transporter two. The power is fluctuating and the failsafe has kicked in."

"Thanks for the report Harry." Harry could hear Peter's tired voice drift through the radio and guessed he was almost finished with his control room shift. "We have received reports about all the transporters in operation. We have been experiencing some power issues. You'll have to use the stairs."

Harry thanked Peter, holding back his groan. "Sorry guys. All the transporters are out. You'll have to use the stairs until they are fixed."

Harry slipped out of the small transporter room and slowly made his way down the corridor, silently joining the mass exodus of marines and a few civilians as they all headed towards the staircase at the end of the long corridor. It was a good few flights of stairs to his lab, but it took him double the time it would have normally taken if he had any inclination to wander up the stairs. They were becoming blocked by the sheer number of people using them as the City began to wake up to another day. The residents of Atlantis formed orderly lines automatically, with the Athosians following the example of the Earthlings, but there were still a lot of people. It was 20 minutes before Harry was finally throwing himself into his comfy desk chair and could start his ritually diagnostics.

Finally able to get some real work done, Harry eagerly collected a small device off one of his lab tables that was covered in hardware and Ancient devices. The scientists under Rodney's draconian command had found several of the shield devices that Rodney had had a small mishap with. Rodney had snagged the only one with enough juice left in it to actually still work, but a few of the others had a small amount of energy left. Enough energy to study them, anyway. Harry had eagerly accepted the device when Radek had brought down some of the finds of his team for Harry to tinker with.

Harry had just carefully plied the back off the small device when a knocking on the wall next to his doorway brought him out of his concentration. He looked around and saw a marine was patiently watching him from the doorway. "Yes?" Harry gave a friendly nod and carefully set down the device.

"I was told to come to you if I had a technical problem."

"Yeah?"

"I have a technical problem."

Harry held back a sigh. "I meant 'yeah, what's the problem?'"

"Oh." The marine rubbed his neck and looked away from Harry, who frowned in confusion. He knew that his friends liked to joke that some of the marines were scared of some of the scientists and what they could do, but he thought it was just a strange combination of respect for the resident eggheads and harmless banter. Harry ignored the strange behaviour and gave the marine a neutral look and nod.

"Well, I've not needed my assigned laptop until now. But it won't turn on."

Harry took the offered laptop and watched as the marine took a step back. He allowed a small frown to cross his features before carefully forcing it away when the marine snuck glances at him. "Do we have some kind of problem?" Harry couldn't help but ask the marine. He was a firm believer in sorting out any issues before they became too big.

The marine looked up and sheepishly met Harry's gaze. "No, it's just…..This is my first offworld posting. I mean, before being transferred here, I didn't even know that the Stargate and aliens even existed. I've never worked with civilians and scientists before. I think they only recruited me because I have the gene." The marine looked away, slightly embarrassed.

Harry studied the nervous man before him. He looked to only be about 22. "Look, most people here are in the same boat as you. I didn't know about aliens and wormholes and all this stuff before I was recruited a few months before we left Earth. Some people here have worked at the SGC or on the offworld sites, but not all. And just because you have the gene doesn't mean that that is the only reason you are here. You have to be the best of the best to get here."

The marine looked up. "Yeah?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. And as for how to act around everyone, just treat the other soldiers like you would on any other posting. As for the scientists, just treat us with some respect and be friendly. That is all we ask for."

The marine gave a large grin. "Thanks for the advice Dr Potter."

Harry shook his head. "I'm not a doctor. Just Harry will be fine." Harry glanced at the laptop he was holding. "It may take me a few days to get this back to you. I've got a huge pile of work to do. That ok?"

"Yeah, that would be great. I can borrow one for my reports for now." The marine's grin was huge as he turned to leave. He called over his shoulder as he left the lab. "Thanks Harry."

It took Harry ten minutes to realise that he didn't even ask for the marine's name, by which time he had dumped the laptop onto an empty table and had pulled on a headband with a magnifying glass attached. The crystals inside the device were tiny and incredibly delicate, but were firmly held in place so they wouldn't get damaged as the device was pulled and bashed around by the wearer. Harry was about to start pulling a few of what he suspected were the key crystals out, when another round of knocking interrupted him. He didn't even glance up as he asked what they wanted.

"I've just come to collect my assigned laptop. You were setting it up?"

Harry just waved a hand in the direction of the transport box next to the door. It contained a number of laptops that he had double-checked and set up once they arrived in Atlantis and when they weren't facing a crisis. Between them, Harry and Peter had set up all the machines. Most of the marines had collected them, but Harry still had a handful waiting to be distributed.

Harry barely heard the marine grab a laptop from the storage crate and leave with thanks. He was engrossed in the delicate crystal circuitry and was determined to pull the primary crystals so he could study them and try to access the programming that ran the device. Harry tried a number of times to remove the fragile crystals with surgical precision but was interrupted seemingly every few minutes by marines needing to collect their assigned equipment. Harry was so frustrated by the disturbances, that he pulled his magnifying glass headband off, unknowingly messing up his already untameable hair, and gave the last marine collecting the last laptop his best death glare. It must have been impressive, because Harry saw the marine swallow nervously and felt a small rush of satisfaction.

Watching the marine back out of the lab slowly, Harry nearly swore very loudly when his radio crackled. He whacked it in response to his name. "Yes?"

"Harry." Harry didn't recognise the voice coming through the radio and frowned, trying to connect the voice with a vague memory of a face. Giving up, he concentrated on what they were trying to tell him. "This is Control. We have been experiencing some power fluctuations and need some help tracking them down. Peter has finished his shift and has gone to get some rest."

"No problem. We shouldn't disturb him unless we absolutely have to – it's been a long few days for us all. I'll start working on it now."

Harry closed the communication line and pushed away from the table he was sat at, whizzing across the room on the incredibly smooth wheels on the chair he was occupying. Harry could nearly imagine the Ancient who had owned it before him doing the exact same thing and getting the same level of childish joy and pleasure out of something so small. Allowing an amused smile to grace his normally neutral features, Harry got to work on Atlantis' current issue.

It took Harry only half an hour to track the origin, but he was frustrated at the end of it, feeling as though he was going in circles every time the power went off and then back on again. The interface systems that the Earthlings were using were efficient and methodical, but Harry couldn't say the same about the Ancient systems and databases. They seemed to have no logical organisation system at all. The systems weren't as bad as the databases though – they were a virtual minefield for trying to find anything. Harry couldn't work out if they were the way they were because that was how Ancients thought, if it was done on purpose in case an enemy gained access to them or if the Ancients were just lazy about some things.

Harry tracked the source of the fluctuations down to a floor above 'ground' level of the Control Tower. Grabbing his trusty backpack, Harry moved out of his lab and office and made his way to the staircase, cursing the entire way. He had to climb down several floors to get to level one (as he mentally defined it). By the time he got there, he was in a distinctly bad mood and just wanted to solve the damn problem so he could get back to his device tinkering.

The floor was mostly quiet as Harry moved silently from the stairs and down the wide corridor. There was only one corridor running the entire width of the tower and Harry could only see a few doorways spread out. Coming to the entrance of the very last door, Harry peered inside and saw a small group of people moving around. He could see that they were scientists from their uniforms and, looking at the artificial lights and the many plants, Harry remembered that the geologists and botanists had been assigned this floor because of the connecting rooms being suitable for all their equipment. The biologists were on the floor down from Harry's lab, and were closer to the infirmary. All the other labs were scattered along the same long stretch of corridor as Harry's was.

Harry quietly knocked on the wall beside the open doorway and waited until one of the scientists within poked their head out from behind a large plant. Harry gave a friendly smile, and opened his mouth to introduce himself and to explain why he was down here, when loud voices stopped him. Turning on his heel, Harry moved away from the doorway and entered a smaller room next to one he had been about to enter, this one was void of plants and didn't resemble a miniature indoor jungle, and had desks with laptops scattered around. The loud voices were coming from a corner of the room where Harry could see three scientists were gathered around an Ancient console.

Moving forward, Harry's mouth fell open in shock as he saw that the side of the console was open and a male scientist had his hand inside and was pulling at the crystals. Following the cable from the console, Harry could see that it disappeared into an open panel in the wall, directly into the complex crystal circuitry that ran and connected Atlantis. The scientists continued to argue as the screen on the wall next to the console flickered on and off. Harry heard their voices increase in pitch and volume as a warning in Ancient flashed across the screen rapidly. From the garble of words that Harry could just about make out, they couldn't read the Ancient words well enough, but they could tell that it was a serious warning as it continued to flash angrily. An alarm suddenly blared out, loud enough to wake the dead, Harry was damn well sure.

Swearing under his breath in every language that he knew, Harry strode forward as the scientists' panic levels skyrocketed. He calmly grabbed the cable buried in the circuitry of Atlantis on the wall and pulled it out. The alarm stopped and the warning died as the screen turned off. Harry had basically just unplugged the console. Sometimes, it was the simple solution that was best.

"What the hell people?" Harry barely kept his face blank and his tone neutral. "Are you trying to blow us all up? Or at least kill yourselves?"

The man ran a hand through his hair. "We didn't know that would happen! What _did _happen?"

Harry shook his head. "You connected a damaged console to the main power supply. It was causing fluctuations and the console was probably a few seconds from blowing up. You should have asked for a technician to set this up for you. Then we would have known that the console was damaged and couldn't be used without repairs. It was stupid of you to assume it was fine and in working order."

The man opened his mouth to reply, a sheepish look on his face, but he suddenly went pale and his mouth snapped shut with a click. Harry cocked his head and heard Rodney's loud and obnoxious voice carrying down the corridor, demanding to know what was going on. Harry thought that he sounded out of breath, and quietly slipped out of the room as Rodney barrelled past him, an angry glare aimed at the geologists. Harry knew Rodney hated any kind of physical exhaustion, unless it was necessary to survival, and that it would just make his mood worst. He was definitely going to let someone else explain this one to his boss.

Harry was half-way up the staircase back to his lab when he decided that he needed a break before he went back to the shield device. He needed to calm himself down a bit so he could fully concentrate on his work. The mess hall was on the floor Harry had lingered at, and Harry decided that an early lunch was in order after a quick glance at his watch. Harry slipped around the crowds and looked distastefully at the cold selection of food available. Harry may have just solved their power fluctuation and malfunctions riddles, but they would have to run a full panel of checks before allowing the use of any of the equipment that had been affected. That included the kitchen equipment.

Harry found a sandwich that looked vaguely appetising and was just about to take a bite as he sank gratefully into his dining chair tucked into a small corner table when his radio crackled. The sandwich froze halfway to his mouth and Harry held back a groan as Elizabeth's friendly voice sounded in his ear.

"Harry. I was wondering if you could stop by my office for a few minutes. I have a translation that I would like you to check for me."

Harry reluctantly put down his sandwich and gave his affirmation to Elizabeth. He grabbed his plate and slipped quietly into the kitchen. Matt was there with Lucas and another marine that Harry didn't know, finishing off making cold food and hot coffee from water heated on camp stoves. Harry quickly explained his situation and Matt was more that happy to wrap up Harry's uneaten lunch. He even offered to have it taken to his lab for him, eager to get away from the mess hall for a short time. Harry smiled his thanks and quickly left, a large mug of tea clutched tightly to him.

Weir smiled as Harry entered her office and sat down in the extremely comfortable chairs in front of her desk. The Ancients sure knew how to make cosy furniture. Harry carefully put his tea down as Elizabeth asked him how he was.

"I'm fine. I assume Rodney briefed you on the incident with the geologists?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes. He told me about that. That was good work and quick thinking on your part."

Harry shrugged. "I was just doing my job." Harry leaned forward in his chair, a slightly eager look crossing his face before he could stop it, causing Elizabeth to smile in response. "What was it you wanted me to check?"

Elizabeth slipped a piece of paper across the table to the dark-haired teen. Harry picked it up and saw Ancient symbols carefully drawn neatly across the page. English words were written underneath. Harry studied the elegant script, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration. Some Ancient words looked incredibly similar and it was harder when you didn't know from which time period the writing was from.

"Where is this from?" Harry asked absently as he searched the desk for a pen or pencil to make some minor changes to the translation.

"It is the writing from the Gateroom – on the stairs and the walls." Elizabeth watched as Harry found a pencil tucked next to her laptop and got to work correcting her translation. Elizabeth was good at languages – one of the best Earth had to offer – but Harry had such a natural affinity with patterns that Elizabeth couldn't help but feel slightly envious. She was going to make sure that she used Harry's ability properly so they could make the most of this Expedition.

Harry was engrossed in his work and didn't even notice as time passed. He only had to make minor changes to Elizabeth's translation – she was very knowledgeable where the Ancients were concerned – but it still took time to carefully contemplate each word and how it fit into the whole text. So many Ancient words looked similar and one wrong word could change the entire text.

"Here you go." Harry passed the paper back to Elizabeth carefully, setting down his pencil. "Do you need anything else?"

Elizabeth gave Harry a bright smile as she studied the changed he had made. "No, that's all for now. I'll let you get back to your work. Thank you for this."

Harry stood up and picked up his mug. "No problem. I'm happy to help."

Harry turned away and took a sip of his drink, barely able to hold in his scowl when he discovered that it had gone cold whilst he was engrossed in the script. Harry doubted his day could get any worse.

He was regretting that thought only a few minutes later when he almost went flying down the stairs as Athosian children barrelled into him. They were running and playing and didn't see him coming down the staircase. It was only Harry's seeker-honed reflexes that had been improved with deadly precision during the War that allowed him to reach out and grip the railing tightly. He scowled at the children, but quickly cleared his features as they swallowed nervously. It seemed that childhood fear of being berated by someone older than you was universal.

"Sorry! We didn't see you!"

"Please don't tell our parents!"

Harry gave a small sigh, but was inwardly amused. It was good to see that the Athosian children could still worry about something as simple as getting into trouble with their parents when the shadow of the Wraith constantly fell on them. Harry didn't have a very good childhood and he was always worried about getting in trouble with his relatives, whose punishments were starvation rather than groundings. He went from a horrible childhood straight into being a soldier and leader in the War. After the end of the War, he had done his part in building a new community and helping the magical world move on. It was only once he started work at the Pentagon that he started doing what he truly wanted to. Coming to Atlantis was the best choice Harry had ever made, in his opinion.

"I won't tell your parents." Harry quickly cut off the children's replies. "But you must never run on the stairs or in the main corridors. It is dangerous. And you shouldn't be this close to the Control and Gateroom without an adult." Harry saw the children nod vigorously. He moved past them and carried on climbing down the staircase.

Harry sighed in relief when he got back to his lab and threw himself into the couch. Reclining back, he closed his eyes for a moment and allowed himself to relax, letting the noises from around him wash over him. He could hear the faint hum of his equipment and relished the familiar background noise. He could also hear Rodney's voice floating down the corridor from the main lab, rising in annoyance or excitement occasionally. Harry smiled to himself and opened his eyes, leaning over to grab the wrapped sandwich on the small coffee-type table in front of the sofa he was lounging in. Harry was hungry after the morning he had just been through and the food didn't last a minute. He was just reaching for the chocolate bar Matt had thoughtfully left for him, when his radio blared into life once again.

"Potter, this is Bates. You need to come to the ground floor and meet me outside the armoury."

Harry groaned and glared out of the windows, annoyed that the weather was so bright and cheerful when his day just continued to get worse. Making sure none of his annoyance was betrayed in his tone, he told Bates he would be there straight away. Harry's homicidal urges towards the universe that seemed to dislike him so much increased even further when Bates told him that the transporters were still out of action, so he would need to take the stairs all the way to the bottom of the Tower.

Harry was fortunate enough that this time the staircases were clear, so it took only a minimum amount of time to get to the bottom of the Tower and didn't nearly get knocked down this time. Everyone was currently engrossed in their work and tasks for the day, although there was an occasional soldier, scientist or Athosian milling around. The calmness of Harry's trek down the entire height of the Tower was the luckiest part of his day so far, a fact that amused him and convinced him that the Universe really did have a grudge against him. It did allow him the time to calm himself and put on his neutral expression.

The very bottom floor of the Control Tower had been claimed by the military contingent on Atlantis. The smaller rooms had been assigned as stock rooms, each holding various kinds of equipment. A few of the soldiers with specific duties, such as Sheppard as Head of the Military and Bates as Head of Security, had their own offices to complete paperwork and reports in. The largest room on the floor had been set up as a kind of common room for the soldiers, normally occupied by the marines when the recreation room a few floors up was too full or it was the early hours of the morning so no one would be there. The soldiers kept strange hours due to their patrols so you could guarantee that there would always be someone in the military hanging around their common room. Other rooms were empty and had been set aside to hold the equipment for each of the planned Gateteams. The last room was the primary Armoury. There were a few smaller stores of weapons across the Tower, but the primary Armoury on this floor was restricted. It was outside this room that Bates stood waiting, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Potter." Harry gave the older man a nod when he caught sight of the teen approaching him. "Come with me."

Bates silently led Harry down a short corridor and entered an open doorway. Following him, Harry saw that it was a large, long room. There was a table set to one side, covered in various weapons. Harry saw that there were standard side-arms, the P90s that were standard for the Stargate program and a curved metallic object that Harry recognised from the SGC files as a zat. There was also a long weapon and Harry saw that it was a Wraith stunner when he looked closer. Glancing to the other end of the room, Harry saw that paper targets had been set up. There were the classic bull's-eye and human shaped targets, but some joker marine had drawn a really good picture of a Wraith. It was exaggerated and completely comical.

"Ok Potter." Harry's gaze snapped to the soldier now stood next to the weaponry on the table. "You are here for weapons training. It is a requirement for anyone that will be going offworld. You will need to pass a basic test after we have completed the training. It's nothing too difficult – mainly gun safety and the basics of how to aim and shoot."

"But I'm not going to be going offworld anytime soon."

Bates shook his head. "We are starting to explore this galaxy and your skills may be required. The sooner you pass the tests, the easier it will be if a situation arises. Nothing is ever simple out here in the universe – you can never predict what is going to happen." Bates moved to face the table. "Dr Weir is very insistent that you be on the list of civilians authorised to go offworld." Bates picked up one of the side-arms and turned back to the tech in front of him. "Have you ever used a gun before?"

Harry eyed the gun, contemplating his answer. During the War, Harry had worked with many different allies, from many different nations. Harry had also fought with a number of Muggles, including those in the military. As the War increased in violence, the Wizarding world had no option but to inform the British Government about it. The attacks on Muggles were increasing in frequency, so the Prime Minister and his Cabinet insisted on offering military help. Harry was eager to accept it because it would give them an edge over Voldemort. Riddle had no idea how the modern Muggle world worked, let alone the damage a gun could do. A team of soldiers from the Special Air Service had been informed about the Wizarding world and the War and had been tasked in training Harry and his men in the use of as many Muggle weapons as they could. The lessons had been no-nonsense and brutal at times, but they worked.

All the information about the extensive training that Harry had received, both Magical and Muggle, was in a sealed file and could only be accessed by those that knew about the Magical community on Earth. No one on Atlantis had any idea that Harry was a highly trained soldier that had been on the frontline of a secret guerilla war. And Harry wanted to keep it that way – here, on Atlantis, Harry was a computer tech, genius and geek. He liked things the way they were.

"I've done some clay pigeon shooting." Harry answered carefully. "And I've done all kinds of paintballing – it was a favourite teambuilding activity when I was at the Pentagon."

"Ok then." Bates nodded and leaned back against the table. "Let's get started."

Over the next few hours, Harry was taught the basics of how to use a gun for a second time in just a few years. Bates was a good teacher and Harry was sure that many of his science department colleagues would finds the lessons informative and easy to follow, but as Harry already knew how to use the weapons, it was slightly boring for him. Nevertheless, he forced himself to pay attention to the soldier. When it came time for him to actually practice the weapons, Harry made sure his movements were precise and slow, following Bates' moves exactly. Harry couldn't bring himself to make his aim bad though. By the time they got through all the weapons, Bates was seemingly impressed.

"You have incredible aim Potter."

Harry rubbed his neck. "I've always had good aim. I played a lot of sports at school." As this wasn't technically a lie, Harry didn't feel so bad. He had no option but to bend the truth about his ability with Muggle weapons. There was no way he could explain how a science tech could be so familiar and comfortable with a gun when there was nothing in his file to explain it.

Bates gave a small laugh. "Yeah, well you're a natural. If I have time after teaching all the other civilians on my list and when you pass the proficiency test, then I really want to see you use a sniper. That should be interesting."

Harry said nothing as he slipped the safety on his P90 and carefully gave it back to the still chuckling soldier. Bates mentioning a sniper rifle brought back some good memories for Harry. Ryan, the soldier that had been his main teacher out of all the SAS men that they were assigned, had said nearly exactly the same thing after discovering Harry's impressive aim and quick reflexes. Harry had thought he was joking, until Ryan dragged him out of bed earlier than normal one morning and pulled him into the middle of nowhere. It had been an amazing day for Harry – it was just him and Ryan and the War was a banned topic of conversation. For that reason, Harry's favourite Muggle weapon (besides his sparring sticks and swords) was a sniper rifle.

Harry bypassed the mess hall on his way to his room. He had only gotten around to eating his lunch later in the afternoon and he still had a chocolate bar to devour. As the other techs were still completing a full panel of checks to ensure nothing was damaged during the geologists' little foray into Ancient engineering, the entire population of the City was going to have to put up with MREs for dinner. Harry didn't think he could handle another one of those damn things. It was times like these that Harry wistfully longed for Mrs Weasley's cooking.

Harry locked the door to his room and leaned back against it, eyes closed. It had been an exhausting day, full of stress and annoyance. Harry looked out of his windows at the darkened sky, pushing himself away from the cold metal door and slipping out onto the balcony. Harry spent a moment observing the unfamiliar star constellations. He really needed to learn them. For a moment, he wished he had a telescope so he could look at the sky in more detail. He had never really appreciated what his education at Hogwarts had given him, thinking at the time that subjects like astronomy were useless. Harry chuckled to himself as he thought about what his 11 year old self would say if he could see 18 year old Harry now. Who would have thought that aliens existed, let alone that he would be on an advanced city floating on an alien ocean in a different galaxy?

Harry felt a rush of happiness and sadness as he thought about his days at Hogwarts. They were some of the best memories of his life, but would be forever sullied by the fact that the final battle of the War had taken place there. So many people had died there; many good allies meeting their end. Harry had gone straight from one attack on a Muggle public building to another. To the one where Hermione had been killed. Hermione - the last of his family left alive. He had barely had time to register her death and order his men to take her body to their Headquarters, when word came that Hogwarts was under attack. It had taken everything Harry had to push down his intense emotions and do what he needed to. Kill Voldemort. But he had done it. And the Wizarding world began to build itself back up again.

Harry didn't even bother to tidy his things away, and just let them land where he dropped them or where they hit after they sailed across the room. He was exhausted, but also strangely exhilarated. He had never been one to sit around and do nothing. Harry was the kind of person who was most happy when he was active, either physically doing something or being challenged intellectually and mentally. Atlantis was turning out to be a full time job, with no real end to shifts. Carson was right about that. Today had just been a typical day on Atlantis.

* * *

><p>Harry woke up before the sun had risen the next day and well before his alarm was due to blare him awake. He had gone to bed early and so had woken up ridiculously early as well. His room was still dark, the bare minimum of light coming through his windows as the deceptively light curtains blocked most of the shine coming from the illuminated city and stars. Closing his eyes, Harry only lasted a few minutes before deciding that he wouldn't get back to sleep now. Once he was awake he was awake and no amount of wishful thinking on his part would change that.<p>

Harry pulled himself out of bed and almost swore as he tripped over one of his discarded boots. He was paying for his laziness last night. He may have only stumped his toe but it hurt, Goddamnit. Scowling in the near-pitch-black, Harry gave a thoughtless gesture and small balls of light flickered into existence, hovering near the ceiling of his room. Harry felt a sudden rush as he used his magic. He had been suppressing his need to use it for a while, only indulging in small amounts here and there.

No one on Atlantis was authorised to know about the existence of magic and the hidden Wizarding community spread across three continents on Earth. Harry himself had spent the entire War and several months after it helping to rewrite laws and trying to integrate Muggle advancements into the stagnant Wizarding community. They had achieved a great deal, but it was decided that Muggles weren't ready to know about them, just like with the Stargate. Harry wasn't going to break the most important international law of Wizards. Not unless he had no choice but to reveal himself.

The problem was that the people on Atlantis were so Goddamn intelligent and observant. They had to be vigilant when they had made themselves the enemy of space vampire aliens intent on destroying and eating them. They would notice if Harry did something overt with his magic. He loved his magic – it was such a huge part of him. But he was involved in the opportunity of a lifetime and not being able to use his magic was a sacrifice he had to make. It had been a tough choice when he really thought about joining the Expedition, but there was no way he could pass up this chance. And Harry knew that he would have to reveal himself eventually. Either by Universe forcing his hand in a life-or-death situation or when they established contact with Earth again. Harry was planning to petition the Government to allow the existence of his people and their abilities to be revealed to those on Atlantis. Considering what their day job was, it probably wouldn't be the most surprising thing they had ever heard.

Harry relished the flow of energy running through him as he used magic to tidy his room, barely paying attention as he got dressed. Small spells that he had been using for years required almost zero thought. It was stopping the instinct to use his magic for small insignificant things that was the problem. Harry did a lot of things automatically that he couldn't really help without intense self-control. Harry slipped out of his room as the final few bits and pieces settled themselves into their assigned places and fell still.

The sun had come up during this time and Harry extinguished the balls of light about half an hour ago, but it was still an ungodly hour. The corridors were empty as Harry strolled down them and slipped into the mess hall, his stomach reminding him that he skipped dinner last night in favour of a chocolate bar and an early night. There were a few bleary-eyed marines around one table, either just about to start their shift or just finishing it. Harry grabbed some orange juice and still-hot toast from the self-serve table and quietly joined a small group of scientists.

"Morning Harry. You're up early." Marie, one of Carson's nurses, smiled at the young man as he slipped into a chair besides her. She lowered her voice. "We were just discussing the rumours. Have you heard?"

Harry frowned. "There are always rumours, about every conceivable topic. I don't know what you are referring to."

"I meant about the spy that everyone is talking about." Marie's voice lowered further, everyone's attention on her, barring two scientists playing an intense game of chess. "They say one of the Athosians is a Wraith spy."

Murmurs broke out and Harry blanked his features, before looking into his glass, contemplating his juice. Clearing his throat, Harry caught the attention of the table. "I find that hard to believe. All of the Athosians have lost a great deal to the Wraith – family, safety, crops and most recently their home. I can't see any of them risking their people like that."

Marie nodded. "I was saying that as well. It is a little difficult to believe. I'm sure there is some other reasonable explanation. Harry," Marie gave Harry another smile. "Remember that Dr Beckett wanted to change your dressing today." Marie had effectively shut down the conversation, something Harry was grateful for. He certainly didn't think any of the Athosians would be able to bring themselves to risk the lives if their loved ones. Harry nodded at the nurse and looked away from the silent group around the table. He saw Peter entering the mess and head in their direction.

Harry smiled at Peter, who gave a small wave at the younger man, and sat down next to him. "You got the early Control shift today?"

Peter nodded, his eyes following the silent chess match that a pair of scientists were playing. "Yeah? You?"

Harry swallowed the toast and juice rolling around his mouth. "I'm with Rodney and Radek in the Jumper Bay this morning. I've got Control duty this afternoon."

Peter looked at Harry over the chess match. "Jumper Bay? I'm surprised McKay is letting you near one of them. He barely lets Radek near them as it is."

Harry shrugged, watching as one scientist (one of the engineers, if Harry remembered correctly) moved his queen across the board. "I helped Radek when Rodney was almost killed in the Jumper and Stargate incident. I guess that made him trust me with the ships." Harry checked his watch. "Rodney said I had to get there at an inhuman hour, so I better go before he shouts at me. His voice can reach levels that can damage the ears." Harry leaned over to the female biologist contemplating her move and whispered in her ear as he stood up. Her face brightened with a wide grin as she moved her knight. Harry heard her cries of 'Checkmate!" as he was leaving the room.

Harry had reached the Jumper Bay early and was met by a harassed Radek just leaving. He stopped when he saw the Brit. "Ah Harry." H pushed his glasses up to stop them sliding down his nose. Harry just about stopped himself from smiling. He remembered how annoying glasses were and was glad he had gotten his eyes fixed when he did. "Rodney has gone to the Infirmary. He will probably be there a while, whining and complaining. I am going back to my lab. We won't be able to start without Rodney."

Harry followed Radek out of the Jumper Bay, listening to the colourful Czech swears being muttered by the shorter man. If Harry hadn't spent the last few months working with him, Harry would have been shocked that someone as kind and proper as Radek could come up with swears that would make a sailor blush. Chuckling to himself, Harry strode down the empty corridor and entered the Infirmary, smiling back at Marie as she slipped inside the nurses' office. Harry could hear Rodney's voice all way down the corridor as he was approaching the Infirmary and couldn't help the small amount of relief he felt. He knew it wasn't serious, because Radek would have been worried and told him. But that didn't mean Harry wasn't relieved – he had grown attached to the prickly Canadian during the months they had been working together.

"Harry." Carson broke away from Rodney with a sigh of relief. Harry could tell he was starting to get annoyed with the abrasive physicist, quite an achievement on Rodney's part. Carson had the longest fuse Harry had even seen. But Rodney just had that effect on people.

Harry pulled himself up onto the bed next to Rodney's and turned to face the two men. "I've come to get you to change the dressing on my head."

"Aye lad." Harry ignored the Scot as he grabbed a clean dressing and some rubber gloves from a cart next to him. Harry rolled his eyes as Carson's hands clamped his head in place to stop him moving around too much and instead met the gaze of his boss.

"So, what are you in for?"

Rodney huffed and held up his hand. Harry could see a small plaster wrapped around the base of his thumb. "I got a splinter."

"A splinter?" Harry's gaze flicked between Carson and Rodney. "Seriously?"

"Hey!" Rodney's voice was indignant as he glared at Harry. "It was a big metal splinter! And it hurt a lot!"

Harry tried to shake his head, but stopped when Carson tightened his hold and gave him a reprimanding look. "So, are you coming to the Jumper Bay?"

"No." Rodney sounded annoyed as he fiddled with the plaster. "I've got a meeting with Elizabeth right now. I'll meet you there in two hours."

Harry jumped down from the bed and smiled his thanks at Carson, who absently patted his shoulder and moved away to dispose of the gloves and old dressing. Harry waved to the good doctor and his snarky boss as he virtually jogged out of the Infirmary. He wasn't due to actually start any kind of work for two hours now, seeing as it was crazy early. Glancing at his watch, Harry decided that he should take Halling up on his offer to teach Harry the written language of the Athosians. They spoke the same language, but the written portion was completely different to the Roman lettering used in English.

Halling was quick to open his door, despite being on crutches and only using one leg. Harry bowed his head to the man in respect and greeting, who nodded his head back, a smile across his face. "How can I help you today Harry?"

"I was hoping you could teach me the Athosian written language this morning – or at least the basics. If you have time."

Halling's smile widened. "Of course Harry. I have enough time. I am pleased you are interested in our language."

Harry entered the room when Halling gestured him in and sat down on a cushion before a window with light streaming in. Halling struggled for a moment, but finally settles himself down on a cushion a few feet away from Harry.

"It isn't just your written language that interests me. I have an interest in other cultures as well. I would be honoured to learn about your customs and beliefs."

Halling's smile was almost blinding and he enthusiastically began to teach Harry the basics of his people's language. It didn't take Harry long to learn the alphabet and the more common phrases and he was soon flying through translations with Halling's direction. A voice cut through the quiet room.

"You are very talented."

Harry raised his head and saw Teyla observing them. It was the same as when she had bumped into him sparring with his friends. Harry raised an eyebrow at her. Bowing his head deeply in respect for her, he waited until she had replied with her own nod before speaking. "I am good with languages. I enjoy learning them. And yours is somewhat similar to a few we have on Earth."

"Dr Weir mentioned that you were talented at languages. We discussed that you would be useful in trading situations. It shows respect to know another's language and could allow us better trading opportunities."

Harry's other eyebrow rose to meet its brother on his forehead. Now he knew why Elizabeth wanted him to pass all the tests required for him to get offworld. Not that he blamed her – he would have to agree with both Elizabeth's and Teyla's idea. They would most likely get fairer and better trades if they made an effort. They would stick out in the galaxy enough as it was. From what Teyla had told them and Elizabeth had passed onto Harry, most planets in this galaxy weren't nearly as advanced as Earth was. The Wraith were incredibly far ahead of all the others, it was no wonder they had had free rein over this galaxy since the Ancients up and left.

Harry glanced at his watch. "I'm sorry, but I must leave or I will be late." Harry climbed silently and gracefully to his feet. He gave Teyla and Halling a deep nod. "Thank you for all your help, Halling. I will keep practicing and will arrange another meeting with you at your convenience. It was nice talking to you again Teyla. We must arrange a time to meet and spar. I look forward to new partners to practice with."

Teyla gave Harry a sweet smile as she opened the door. "I too must leave. I need to speak to Dr Weir. We will arrange a time to spar. I look forward to it."

* * *

><p>Harry leaned further back into his chair and put his feet up on the console before him. Rodney was hovering in the back of the Jumper, reaching up to adjust cables and crystals in the open console above his head and Radek had long seated himself down on the bench, calmly tapping away on his tablet. Harry, having the gene and being able to control Ancient technology much better than that the Canadian, had seated himself in the driver's chair and was browsing through the Jumper's systems. It didn't actually require any physical contact from the gene holder after it had been turned on, so Harry was able to sit back and put his feet up. He had been engrossed in discovering the capabilities of the ship and so had effectively managed to not get involved in discuss about the spy between the two older men. He liked the Athosians and didn't feel right gossiping about them. He knew what it was like to have everyone watching and talking about you.<p>

"I mean, I don't think it's too much to ask." Harry turned his head slightly, confused about the turn in conversation. He had been so engrossed in the Ancient system that the conversation had moved on without him knowing.

"What is it?" Harry silently smirked to himself. It seemed like Rodney hadn't been paying attention to the conversation either.

"Nothing, nothing. I just can't bear the same meal day after day after day." Harry couldn't the snort that almost escaped him. He knew that everyone was starting to get a little bit annoyed with the MREs. It had taken time to test and figure out the kitchen equipment and then they had to run diagnostics and checks after the geologists little gaffe. There hadn't been much real cooked food going around since they got there. Harry's diet was even more limited due to him being a vegetarian.

"Well, buck up a little. I'm trying to run a diagnostic."

"Sorry!" Harry went back to his perusal of the Jumper's systems, ignoring the mild Czech swears being muttered by the shorter man as he apologised to Rodney.

Rodney chose to ignore the murmurs of his colleague, no doubt not understanding how bad the language coming out of the engineer's mouth was. "I mean, we are stranded with limited resources in another galaxy. Come on, the nearest Bob's Big Boy is three hundred million light years away. We have to make do. If that means you have to eat my favourite food two days in a row, so be it."

"You enjoy military rations?!" Harry turned around again, a mildly curious look on his face as he met Radek's gaze. Harry didn't think it was possible for any human to enjoy MREs. It just wasn't normal or natural.

Rodney saw the looks he was getting from his colleagues and shrugged before going back to his work. "I know. It's weird. Hospital food too. The only reason I don't like airplane food is you can't get seconds and I'm an absolute ..." Harry heard a quiet beep. "Hello."

"What is it?"

"Well, it's a command subroutine I've never seen before."

Harry sat up and swung his feet off the console. He twisted around in the chair so he was partially facing the two older men. "Really? That's interesting. You've been over these ships before and never found it."

"Yeah, I was only looking at the primary systems last time. I've gone further this time, into the non-essential systems."

"What is its function?" Radek hovered behind Rodney, trying to see over the slightly taller man's shoulder. Rodney pulled his gaze away from his tablet and gave an annoyed and exasperated huff.

"I don't know because I've never seen it before. OK, I'm going to cross reference this with the, uh, Ancient database up in the Control Room." Rodney reached up and hooked his tablet onto the conduit, careful to make sure it was supported before he let it go. He called back as he wandered down the Jumper's rear exit ramp. "I'm just going to grab the, uh ..."

Harry rose from his chair, intending to follow the scientist as he absently started to make his way across the Jumper bay. As he was passing him, Radek grabbed the tablet strung up and accidently pressed a button. Harry froze as a loud clunking could be heard from outside, above the ship. Harry shook his head as Radek let go of the piece of equipment and held up his hands.

"What was that?" Rodney had stomped back into the Jumper, glaring at the two men stood side by side. Harry held up his hands and gestured to the shorter man next to him. Radek glared at him, but Harry just shrugged.

"I'm not taking the blame for this one Radek. I know not to touch unknown stuff. I've already been zapped once this week saving Kavanaugh's annoying arse."

"No, no, nothing, nothing." Radek could only protest weakly as Rodney's death glare solely turned on him. Harry had to admit that Rodney had a very good mean glare. He would be scared by it if he hadn't faced off with psychotic sociopaths hell bent on cleaning the Earth of 'mudbloods'.

Harry ignored the two men as they argued back and forth, Radek protesting his innocence and Rodney berating him. Instead, he looked warily out of the back of the Jumper as the clunking got louder. He slipped past the two men, not noticing as they followed him down the ramp. A steady humming filled the bay. Harry's gaze snapped upwards and watched, surprised, as the roof of the bay retracted. He could feel bright sunlight warming his face.

"Huh, that was kind of impressive." Harry commented absently, a small grin on his face as he looked at the bright blue sky above him.

"I had no idea the roof could do that."

"Neither did I."

All three stared at the sky for a minute, before they all headed in different directions – Rodney heading to the control room, Radek virtually jogging to his lab in excitement and Harry slinking back into the Jumper to continue his examination of the Jumper's systems.

* * *

><p>Harry was barely able to eat his lunch, he was bombarded with so many questions about the retracting roof in the Jumper bay. Gossip sure travelled fast on Atlantis, Harry though sourly as he ducked out of the mess hall and headed towards the Control room. He had no doubt that Radek was the source of the gossip. Rodney was usually too absorbed in work to participate in the scuttlebutt on base and didn't really care anyway. Hearing someone call to him as he swiftly made his way towards the newly-operational transporters, Harry mentally swore and forced a blank look onto his face.<p>

"Hey, it's Potter right?"

Harry turned and saw the young Lieutenant from Sheppard's team hurry up to him. "Yes, it is. Can I help you with something Ford?"

Ford grinned at the younger man. "I heard about the roof in the Jumper bay."

"Yes." Harry replied carefully, forcing down the urge to roll his eyes. "Everyone has by now. Those gossipy scientists have made sure of it."

"Well, I wanted to know if you had heard anything about anyone making use of that opening roof anytime soon."

"I've heard that Major Sheppard is planning on taking out a Jumper in the next few hours to do a quick assessment of this planet. Dr Weir has just given approval. If the Control techs are right."

Ford's grin increased and he nodded to Harry. "Thanks man. I'm gonna go find him and see if I can tag along. I'm just gonna grab some food from the mess to bribe him with."

Harry called out to Ford as he jogged off down the corridor. "Good luck with that."

It wasn't until an hour or so later that he heard about whether Ford had been successful in his quest to convince Sheppard to let him tag along on his mini Jumper joyride. Harry was bored out of his mind in the Control room, monitoring the systems and the Gate readings with other equally bored techs, when his radio crackled. Harry pulled himself up from his minor slumped position in his chair positioned before the dialling console.

"Harry? You are still on Control duty right now, aren't you?"

Harry tapped his radio. "Yes, Elizabeth. I've got another hour until I'm done."

"Would it be possible for you to come to the secondary conference room?"

Harry gave her a positive answer and eagerly rose from his chair. Absolutely nothing had happened all morning in the control room, bar Peter at the far end acting as Flight for Sheppard when he was roving across the planet in the Jumper. Peter took Harry's position at the dialling console, ushering Harry away absently. Harry grabbed his tablet without thought to bring with him. He was either being called to translate something again or for his expertise with the Ancient systems. Either way, his tablet would be useful and he never really like going anywhere without it anyway. It was like another limb to him.

The door to the smaller, secondary conference room opened and closed almost silently as Harry passed through them. Inside, he saw Elizabeth was stood around a table laden with maps and data graphs, Bates, Sheppard, Ford and Rodney stood with her. They all looked excited and Ford nodded to Harry when he entered in the middle of their discussion.

"It's huge." Ford's voice held excitement and awe.

"Define huge." Harry moved to stand next to Rodney, who had wandered to one side of the triangular shaped table.

"Fifteen million square miles. Well, give or take."

"Well, that would make it approximately the size of ... uh ... I have no idea, but it sounds huge."

"About the size of Canada, Russia and the USA combined." Harry spoke absently. Every set of eyes in the room snapped to him in surprise. He blanked his face and gave a slight shrug. "We learnt the order of countries by size and population when I was in Primary school. It was something that my geography teacher was very enthusiastic about. It's just some of the useless information that seems to stick."

Elizabeth knew that Harry didn't like too much attention, so hurried the conversation forward. "How long would it take us to get there?"

"Twenty five minutes by Jumper, ground to ground. I saw some sweet breakers on the south tip. There may be surfing in our future!"

"We should send a team to go get soil and water samples." Bates' voice was neutral, but his face was contemplative as he gazed down at the maps spread in front of him.

"He's right. If the land's arable it could solve a lot of our food production problems." Harry held in a laugh at Rodney's excited comment. If there was one thing other than his work that got Rodney enthusiastic, it was food. Well, that and coffee. Atlantis virtually ran on the stuff.

"Actually, I was thinking of something else." Bates had looked up from his quiet contemplation of the maps and looked hard at Elizabeth. Harry cocked his head to the side slightly, considering what the man was hinting at.

"Not surfing?" Harry rolled his eyes out of sight of everyone in the room. Harry knew that Sheppard was a good leader. His friends were very clear in their support of the Major, even if he was a flyboy. But Harry could see that the pilot was something of a smartarse.

Bates didn't even hide his eye rolling. "No, sir. We can't resume offworld missions as long as the Athosians remain in the city." Ah, there was Bates' point. And whilst Harry was reluctant to pack the Athosians off to live on the mainland, he could see that Bates had a point. The safety of Atlantis was important – not only for the people living in the City, but for all the people on Earth and the other civilisations back in their home galaxy. The Gate on Atlantis was the only one that could establish a wormhole with Earth. The Wraith couldn't reach their home, no matter the cost. It was a tough choice that Harry understood all too well. War had ingrained those choices into him, whether he liked it or not.

"So you wanna dump 'em on the mainland?!" Sheppard's voice was full of indignation and Harry could see the dark glare aimed at Bates. If Harry hadn't faced some seriously crazy and deranged psychopaths, then that look would have sent a chill down Harry's spine.

"You sound like we're sending them out there to die, Major." Harry couldn't help but admire Bates. He seemed barely affected by his Cos mean looks and the hostile edge in his tone.

"Well how the hell would you know?"

It was this point that Harry tuned out the sounds of the minor pissing match going on between the two soldiers. Harry leaned against the table to get a closer look at the maps. It looked like it would be a good place of a settlement. The coast closest to the City had a small beach and a cliff range. Harry could see that there was plenty of flat country space between the beach and the forest indicated on the map. It would be a good place to plant crops, but also close enough to the wooded areas that hunting would be possible with barely any travel and trekking.

Harry's attention was brought back to the group by Sheppard and Bates' voices getting louder with Rodney's sarcasm interjecting every now and then. Elizabeth's quiet and calm tones seemed to bring the conversation back to a civilised level. The sound of his name snapped him out of his study of the survey charts before him.

"Harry." Elizabeth gave him a smile, but it was strained around the edges. "Please search the database and see what information the Ancient's had about the mainland."

Harry nodded and rested his tablet on the table before him. Sliding into a chair, he accessed the Ancient database. The Ancient were poor filers and organisers it seemed, but the more time Harry spent in their systems and databases, the easier it became t get used to the disarray he found. It was a few short minutes until he found anything, but everyone was absorbed in continuing their argument. Harry spent a few minutes reading over the information, contemplating the Ancient words that he didn't know.

"Have you found anything yet?" Harry could hear the annoyance in Elizabeth's voice, but he doubted many of the others could. It was only because Harry had spent so long having to learn how to judge the intentions of others that he could read most people so easily.

Harry cleared his throat carefully, grabbing the attention of the two bickering soldiers. "Yes. The Ancients did a survey of the mainland when the originally occupied this planet. They have noted many different species of wildlife, including a few predators. The database does indicate that the soil and water are viable, but we should still do a survey to make sure. This information is very old and a lot could have changed since the Ancients were here."

"Thank you Harry." Harry nodded in response and quickly escaped the room. There was no way he was getting in the middle of the argument between the senior staff on Atlantis. It wasn't his business what decision they made. Here, he was just a tech – something that he enjoyed. He had spent years being in charge, with many people looking to him to make the decisions. No matter what he had decided, someone would be unhappy with his choice. There was no way to please everyone. Harry was enjoying a break from all that stress.

"Harry Potter. Just the man I was looking for."

Harry turned around from his position next to the central control console, where he was about to displace Peter so he could finish his shift and get to his lab to tinker with some of the more interesting devices that had been found. He still hadn't had a chance to finish looking at that shield device. Stood behind him, with a large and friendly smile on her face, was Atlantis' resident shrink, Dr Heightmeyer.

Seeing Harry looking at her with his eyebrow raised, Heightmeyer was quick to explain. "Dr Weir has asked me to complete an evaluation of those people on the list that will be going offworld in the future. I know that everyone had an assessment on Earth with the psychologists at the SGC, but a more expansive evaluation is needed for those going offworld."

"I have to finish my Control shift right now, Dr Heightmeyer. Could we do this some other time?" Harry had just decided to accept that Elizabeth believed he was going to have to go offworld at some point in the future. He knew that the unexpected always happened, especially to him. He might as well jump through the bureaucratic hoops now to make his life easier in the future.

"You only have ten minutes left. I'll cover them for you."

Harry glared at Peter, who was holding back a smile. No one on Atlantis liked being stuck in a room with a shrink analysing every little detail about them and their mental state. Harry gave Peter one last dark look, before plastering a polite look on his face and following Heightmeyer to her office like a man being led to his doom.

* * *

><p>"Thank you for the final lesson before you leave, Halling"<p>

The older man gave Harry a gentle smile. "You are a fast learner. It has been a joy to teach you."

"I hope you like the mainland."

Halling nodded enthusiastically. "I miss being outside, in nature. I miss the sound of the wind in the trees and the animals."

"I know what you mean. I love being on Atlantis, but I sometimes miss nature as well."

Halling eyed the young man before him. The Humans liked to gossip and he had heard a great many different things about the people in the City. But there had not been a lot of information available about the young man before him. He had discovered that he was very talented but that he was also very private. Halling had found him friendly and very willing to learn what Halling had spent time teaching him.

"What was it like where you grew up?" Halling saw the dark-haired man look out the window, quietly contemplating Halling's innocent question. Halling was about to apologise for invading Harry's privacy, when the teen's voice stopped him.

"I grew up with my relatives in a large community, not far from a large city. There were lots of people and houses around. There were parks and gardens, but not much nature otherwise. When I was eleven, I went to a school further north than where I grew up. It was right in the middle of the wilderness, with a huge lake and a large forest. There was only a small village close by."

Halling detected the wistfulness in Harry's voice. "Well, you must come and visit us when we have established our camp on the mainland."

Harry gave Halling a genuine smile, his face open. "That would be nice. It's been years since I've been camping. Thank you."

The door opening stopped Halling's reply and he turned to see Calen stood in his doorway. Calen was a few years younger than Harry and had dark hair and eyes. He was a friendly and bright young man, with a passion for learning new things. It was just Calen and his younger sister – their parents had been culled when they were just children. They had been raised by the village, like all the other Athosian children, even those with one or both parents still alive. Calen had taken a liking to Harry and seemed to look up to him with admiration.

"Harry." Calen bounced on the balls of his feet. "You promised that you would spar with me before we left. You said you would give me advice on how to improve."

Halling smiled. Calen was one of Teyla's most promising students. He had a determination and grace that rivalled Teyla's and his natural enthusiasm drove him to succeed.

"I did." Harry rose from his feet, gathering the notebook he had been using to make notes in during his lesson with Halling and shoving it into his ever-present backpack. "I need to get changed and we will head towards the gym. I also have a leaving present for you." Harry turned to Halling and bowed his head. "Thank you again Halling. I look forward to visiting when you are settled on the mainland."

Harry wandered towards the transporter, the younger man close behind him. On the way to his room, Harry silently considered the Athosian behind him. He had met him at the celebration/welcoming party when they first arrived on Atlantis. Calen had been full of life and a passion for knowledge. Harry had no doubt that he would go far if he had been born on Earth. Calen displayed the same kind of intelligence that all the scientists on Atlantis had – they were all geniuses. Calen was two years younger than Harry, and at 16, was incredibly protective of his younger sister. Ava was only 9 and incredibly shy around everyone but her brother, but Harry saw the same spark of intelligence in her eyes.

Harry slipped into his bathroom and hastily pulled on his gym clothes, tossing his uniform into the wash basket. He really needed to do his laundry soon. The engineers had found machines down near the Infirmary and found, once tested thoroughly, that the machines were the Ancient equivalent of a Laundromat. They hypothesised that the machines, which used sonic waves to clean, were originally used by the infirmary to thoroughly clean linens and other fabric items used by doctors and nurses. A few machines had been set aside for the sole use of the Infirmary, and the rest was for everyone to clean their own clothes and bed linens.

Harry set his backpack down on his bed and grabbed a small pack that he had put there earlier. Harry radioed Nate on his way to the sparring room. "Hey Nate. You free right now?"

"Sure. I've finished patrol. What do you have in mind?"

"I'm going to do some training. Want to meet me in the sparring room?"

"Yeah, sounds good. I'll grab Dan and Zack as well. See you in a few."

The guys were closer to the sparring room than Harry was it seemed, because they were already there when he arrived, Calen trailing behind him. Harry gently set his bag down on the cushioned sill in front of the stained glass window and pulled his shoes and socks off. He slipped his jacket off as well.

"Hey, who's your friend Harry?"

"Oh sorry." Harry gave Calen an encouraging smile. "This is Calen Torgan. He is one of Teyla's students."

"That is so cool." Zack had a look of childish glee on his face. "Teyla can kick some serious ass. I've seen her sparing."

Harry rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Calen, this is Nate, Zack and Dan. Guys, Calen is going to spar with us and we'll give him some advice before he goes to the mainland."

"Awesome. Nice to meet you Cal."

Calen looked confused. "Cal?"

Dan clapped the younger man on the shoulder good-naturedly. "Sure, it's your new nickname. We all have shortened our names. It's what friends do."

Calen's confusion cleared. "Ah, I understand. If you all have shortened your names, then what are your actual names?" Calen gave a small smile. "Human names fascinate me. They are so varied."

Zack gave a small laugh. "Yeah, there are a lot of people on Earth and lots of different cultures. My full name is Zachary, Dan's is Daniel and Nate is Nathaniel. We are all from a large country called the United States of America. But we are from different areas, which is why we have different accents."

"Most of your people seem to be from America. I asked what the different pictures on your uniforms meant. I was told that they are flags from each of your home countries. Earth must have many people if there are so many different places for your people to live." Harry could see the spark for knowledge ignite in the teen's brown eyes. He gave a small smile when said eyes turned to face him, a question in their depths.

"My full name is Harold, but I've never been called that in my entire life. I've always been called Harry. I'm from a small country called England. And there are many people on Earth – billions of people spread across a few hundred countries. The people here on Atlantis only represent a small portion of the nations on our home planet."

"I would like to see your planet very much." Calen's voice was wistful.

"You never know, maybe you will one day. I know most of us Earthlings are just waiting for the day we establish contact with Earth and we can tell them all about what we have discovered in your galaxy."

"So, are we going to start?" Nate was already stretching and limbering up in anticipation.

Harry gave a small smile, and leaned back to grab the bag he had previously set down. "We will in a minute. I have a present for Calen."

Harry handed small bag over to the younger teen, watching as he eagerly opened it and pulled out the contents. The bag was a small leather bag with a strap so it could be worn over the shoulder and securely across the body. Harry had traded with an Athosian for it. It had cost him several chocolate bars, which he had received in payment from Matt in the kitchens for giving him a lesson in Ancient so he could operate the kitchen equipment better. Inside the bag were a handful of pencils and pens, a couple of books from the common room and a hardbound notebook.

"Thank you so much Harry." Calen gave Harry an incredibly bright smile as he flicked through the book. Inside, Harry had painstakingly spent all night writing out the Athosian and English alphabets and all the words that Harry knew how to write in Athosian. Calen had expressed an interest in learning the written language of Humans, and as they used English on Atlantis, Harry decided to teach him. But Calen was heading off to the mainland, so Harry had to improvise.

"I plan on visiting the mainland. So we can have actual lessons. But I thought you might like to start teaching yourself. The books are on loan – they are from the common room. So, when I visit, I will bring some new ones and exchange them."

Harry couldn't help the wide smile that he gave in response to Calen's babbling thanks as they all prepared to do some relaxed sparring.

* * *

><p>Harry slowly twirled around in his chair, looking at the ceiling as it slowly rotated around in a circle. He was going to die of complete and utter boredom, no matter how much Peter insisted that it wasn't actually possible. He had only started his Control shift an hour ago, and nothing significant had happened so far. It was half an hour before he started that a Gateteam – Sheppard's team escorting some scientists to study some ruins with a few marines tagging along for good measure – had left Atlantis and Harry was so bored that even watching other people set out on adventures sounded good right about now.<p>

Harry's slow spin was stopped abruptly by the sound of the Gate dialling. His foot darted out to stop his rotation and he sat up straighter at the main console. It took only a moment for his brain to catch up with his stationary state and stop turning, but by then a wormhole was just establish. Harry whacked the shield button and watched as the light shimmered over the bright blue rippling event horizon. A garbled message came through over the radio, too much background noise making it impossible to catch the entire thing, but enough for Harry to get the general gist of things. It seemed like Sheppard's team had run into trouble once again on a mission.

Harry tapped his radio. "Dr Beckett, this is Control. We have a team coming in hot that may require immediate medical assistance."

Harry heard Carson's affirmative reply and knew that he was rushing around to send a med team to the Gateroom ASAP. More garbled noise came over the radio and Harry could definitely hear gun fire. Lots of gunfire.

Elizabeth had rushed out of her office by now and was hovering nervously behind Harry as he disengaged the shield upon receiving the correct IDC. "Gateteam, this is control. The shield is down."

Harry rose from his seat and his eyes followed Elizabeth as she ran to the top of the staircase and jogged down to meet the team. The group of explorers came bursting through the Gate, Rodney and a marine dragging an unconscious Sheppard with them. Harry waited for Ford and Teyla to follow the group through the device, but he shut it down as soon as Sheppard was fully in the Gateroom at the insistence of the marine that he was sure was called Stackhouse. Leaving his console, Harry silently moved to the edge of the control room and leaned against the railings so he could hear what was going on below.

"We have to go back!" Rodney's voice was full of the normal overbearing command and obnoxiousness, but Harry could clearly hear the concern.

"Teyla, Lieutenant Ford?"

"Still on the planet. We have to go back now!" Harry winced at Rodney's tone. He had yet to be on the receiving end of Rodney's really pissed off voice and hoped that he never would be. Rodney had the berating and belittling of those he considered stupid and annoying down to a fine art.

"I'd advise against it. You have Wraith all over the Gate."

"We can't just leave them there!"

Harry moved back to the console, sharing a look with Peter. He may have been bored out of his mind just a few minutes ago, but everyone being on edge and in a bad mood wasn't what he was hoping for. Boredom was favourable any day. Harry concentrated on the console in front of him, trying to ignore the tension that was enveloping the room when Bates came storming in, the marines, Rodney and the other scientist following behind him. Harry saw that they had all spent a short time removing their tactical equipment in the small prep room off the Gateroom.

"How many?" Elizabeth had finally come back into the Control room, a tired and anxious look carefully hidden.

"It's hard to say. Most of them were behind the tree line."

"We're wasting time here. We need to mount a rescue operation." Rodney was full of coiled anxiety and anger. Harry could see that he was barely containing himself from shouting.

Elizabeth rubbed her face and sighed. "I am not going to send anyone through that Gate until I have all the facts, Doctor. How did Teyla and Lieutenant Ford get separated from you?"

"They went to check out the area and try to make contact with some of the natives."

"And whose idea was that?" Bates was virtually snapping at everyone.

"Mine." Harry looked up from the laptop secured on a small table next to the console, where he could monitor the Gate readings. Sheppard sauntered past, a glare aimed at the Head of Security. "She was following my orders."

Harry tuned out of the rest of the conversation. It's not like he got a say in whether they went back to the planet anyway and the tension and anger in the group was virtually suffocating. Address Symbols on the Ancient console started activating and a warning about the incoming wormhole flashed up on the laptop.

Harry raised his voice so it was heard clearly in the still-bickering group. "We have an unscheduled offworld activation." The words were not something that Harry would naturally say, but he had received training at the SGC about the correct terminology that they should use, along with everyone else who had Control duty. The Gate kawhooshed and Harry slide his chair on its smooth wheels so he could type on the laptop without leaning really far. "It's Teyla's I.D.C. Receiving a radio transmission."

Harry typed a command so that the radio transmission was broadcast over the Control room speakers. "This is Teyla. Lieutenant Ford has been wounded. The Wraith are closing in on our position."

"You put down that shield and we could be opening this base up to a Wraith attack."

"Atlantis, please let us through!"

Harry looked up from the screen to see Elizabeth staring down at the Gate, and anguished and indecisive look very much visible to all in the room. She bit her lip and watched as marines flooded the Gateroom, the clicking as they armed and aimed their guns loud and ominous. Harry could see Nate and Zack down in the Gateroom, determined looks carefully masked beneath professional blankness.

"Lieutenant Ford, can you confirm the situation?"

"He is unconscious. Our situation grows desperate. Soon we will have no choice but to go through the Stargate." Harry almost winced at the desperate tone of Teyla's voice. He didn't believe that she could be a spy for the Wraith. He had seen her dedication to her people and couldn't believe that she would do anything to jeopardise their safety.

"We drop that shield and who knows what she'll bring through that Gate with her?"

"Open up the damn Gate!"

Elizabeth locked gazes with the Airforce Major. Coming to a hesitant decision, her voice was soft but clear. "Lower the shield."

Harry quickly leaned over and hit the shield button, watching as the shimmer over the Gate died, causing the marines downstairs to tighten their hold on their weapons. Every one of their guns was trained on the pair of figure coming through the event horizon, one dragging the other. The Gate shut down and Harry saw the Nate and Zack stalk forward, following orders and keeping their guns trained on the Athosian. Teyla glanced up and looked startled for a moment, before backing away from the prone form of Ford. Harry leaned back in his chair in relief that neither of them were dead and watched silently as everyone but the Control staff ran down the stairs to the Gate.

Harry felt someone come and stand behind him and saw Miko smiling softly at him. Harry was confused for a minute, before a consultation of his watch told him that his shift in Control was done for the day. Harry rose, and with one last glance down into the Gateroom, stepped away from his console. Harry nodded to Miko and she slipped into his previously-occupied chair. Harry stuck around for a few minutes, explaining in careful German what to keep an eye on to the German tech that had started his Control duty only 20 minutes ago.

Harry had only just settled into his lab, when a marine hurried in.

"Sergeant Bates wants you in Dr McKay's lab."

Harry nodded and turned back to a laptop he was fixing for one of the ham-fisted marines they seemed to have around Atlantis. "I'll go in a short while. I'm right in the middle of some diagnostics."

The marine shuffled nervously. "No, Sir. Sergeant Bates was insistent that I take you there right now."

Harry sighed, but followed the soldier down the corridor to Rodney's lab. It was a ridiculously short distance and Harry didn't like the implications of Bates thinking he needed a marine escort to make him go there. Bates would still be in a pissed off mood from his confrontation with Elizabeth and Sheppard. That was not something Harry was willing to get in the middle of.

Rodney was stood glaring at Bates, his arms folded across his chest in a classic cantankerous pose. The marine escort disappeared so quickly that Harry would have been convinced he had done a silent-apparition if he didn't know he was the only wizard on the expedition. Bates indicated that Harry should stand next to Rodney with a sharp jerk of his head, which Harry did to appease the man. Harry looked around the room as Bates emptied the cloth bag he had under his arm onto the table. It was just him and Rodney, the rest of the scientists banished by the irate soldier.

Harry focus was brought back to the two men glaring daggers at each other by Rodney's indignant voice. "You want me to go through her stuff?!"

Harry looked down at the table and saw a small array of items scattered over it. He saw a few items of jewellery, a mirror, a hairbrush and a few other trinkets. Harry didn't feel right about going through items that were so personal. Harry didn't care if anyone went through his things – it's not as though he had a lot with him. The main thing that he was very private with was his diary. But he didn't have to worry about that, because it was written in a language that only he on Atlantis could read, write and understand.

"We're looking for weapons, transmitters, recording devices, anything that looks like it's beyond the Athosians' level of technology." Bates looked over at Harry. "This is your area of expertise Potter. Help McKay."

"And if we don't find anything, do we move on to a strip search?"

"Just do it." Bates marched out of the room without a backwards glance at either man. Harry sat himself down on a high metal stool and looked at the Physicist still glaring after Bates.

"I'm not comfortable doing this Rodney." Harry carefully laid the items out on the table and separated them into two halves. "But if we refuse to do it, then Bates will go and bully another scientist into checking all this stuff for him. It would be best of we just check the stuff. At least then we know it is being handled carefully and respectfully."

Rodney sighed but nodded. "I guess you're right." Harry shifted half the pile of stuff closer to the Canadian. "We should just get this out of the way as soon as possible."

Harry picked through the items that were in his half, carefully inspecting them. He dismissed the hairbrush, notebook and mirror as suspect items and was inspecting a glass-beaded necklace for anything abnormal when Rodney's sharp intake of breath caught his attention. He hadn't paid the older man any mind as they both methodically worked through their assigned items, but looked over and saw that the Canadian had hooked up a simple pendant on a leather cord to a few scanning devices.

"What have you found?"

Rodney looked up from his laptop, a confused expression on his face. Harry would have savoured that look, sure that was an extremely rare occasion that the Great Dr Rodney McKay was confused by something, if the situation wasn't so serious. Harry leaned over the table and looked closer at the readings displayed. His eyebrows shot up.

"Is that a continuous, short-range transmission being broadcast?"

"Yes, it is." Rodney set down the metal locket, rubbing his eyes. "Damn, I was so sure Bates was wrong. We've got to tell Sheppard."

Harry shook his head vigorously as Rodney stood up. "No way. I'm not telling him. You should do it – he likes you."

"What makes you think he likes me?" Rodney's voice was snarky and he crossed his arms over his chest.

Harry rolled his eyes slightly. "Please. He asked you to join his team. And he seems to be able to put up with you for prolonged periods of time on your missions without committing homicide."

"What? Why would he want to kill me?"

"Rodney, everyone on Atlantis has wanted to kill you at some point." Harry stood up from his chair and gently set down the beaded necklace he had been studying. "If that is all, I'm just going to go back to my lab….."

Rodney snorted. "Not so fast, Harry. If I have to tell Sheppard, then you will have to help me tell Elizabeth."

"What, so if you suffer, I have to suffer as well? How is that fair?"

Rodney snorted. "It isn't fair. But that's how it's going to happen. So, you head up to the conference room and get Elizabeth on the way and I'll break the good news to the Major."

Harry glared at Rodney before sighing and heading out of the room. "And you wonder why everyone wants to kill you." Even though it was muttered under his breath, Rodney must have still heard, because his indignant shout of denial followed Harry down the corridor as he headed for the stairs. Harry got to the Control room within a few minutes, but he was waylaid by a couple of techs on duty. It took him almost 20 minutes to get them to fully explain what they were arguing about with each other and another 10 to get them to stop. Harry finally resorted to a few harsh words worthy of Rodney in each of the tech's native languages. Problem solved, Harry swiftly moved across the room, avoiding anyone that looked like they wanted to talk to him.

"Where have you been?" Rodney gave Harry a dark glare as the younger man tried to slip unnoticed into the room, which was made impossible by the automatic doors hissing open and closed as he entered. "We started ten minutes ago."

Harry carefully sat himself down, ignoring Sheppard and Bates, who had remained standing and looked at his boss. "I apologise. I got delayed by a couple of technicians on Control duty."

"Is everything ok?" Elizabeth cut in before Rodney could start off on one of his infamous rants.

"Everything is fine. They had a minor disagreement about something that they wanted me to solve. It was a trivial thing." Harry looked up at Rodney, who looked like he really wanted to ask for names, so he could shout at them later. "What have I missed?"

"Teyla wasn't aware of the transmitter in the locket. Sheppard found it among ruins on the Athosian homeworld and gave it to her."

"As I was saying before you got here." Rodney gave Harry one last glare, before carefully laying the necklace on the table in front of Elizabeth and moving to stand next to Sheppard. "The locket isn't powerful enough to send a signal very far, certainly not through subspace. My guess is there are probably relay devices on certain planets that pick up the transmission and then alert the nearest hive ship. Those were the planets where we were attacked."

"Boy, do we owe a few people an apology." Harry looked over at the Major as he glared at the Head of Security. Harry could understand the loyalty that Sheppard had to everyone he had chosen for his team, but Harry could see it from Bates' point of view. The security of Atlantis was his responsibility, and it was better to apologise later than to regret not being cautious, especially when the consequences involved them all being eaten by space vampires and said aliens being able to reach Earth.

"Teyla had no idea she was giving away your position." Harry could hear the relief in Elizabeth's voice and couldn't help but agree with the sentiment. He was glad that Teyla wasn't a traitor.

"She said it was a present from her father. She lost it when she was a kid."

"It was probably dormant 'til Major Sheppard picked it up, activating it."

"If she wore it as a kid, how come they weren't attacked back then?" Bates was good at portraying a carefully blank look, but Harry had perfected his skill at reading people over the years and could see the confusion and curiosity in Bates' eyes.

"Didn't I just say it was dormant?" Harry rolled his eyes at Rodney's annoyed tone. The Canadian was very much aware of how smart he was and enjoyed telling everyone at any opportunity. But sometimes he forgot just how much smarter than the average person he was.

"But if it was activated by touch ..."

"You're not listening. I said Major Sheppard activated it."

Harry cut in before Rodney could make any further snarky comments. It would be typical if Rodney was shot by the Sergeant purely for being the most annoying man who ever lived. "The Wraith would have interest in tracking a normal human. The humans in this galaxy are so far behind the Wraith in terms of technology that they don't present any kind of challenge. The Wraith just choose a planet and then round the humans up like cattle. But someone like Major Sheppard, who has a very specific gene – the Ancient gene – would be of interest to them. Especially considering the very long war between the Ancients and the Wraith. The Wraith would want to keep track of their enemy."

"So some Athosian thought this would make a nice little necklace."

Rodney pulled a face at his team member. "How could I possibly know that? What am I, Answer Man? The point is ..."

"... it wasn't Teyla - or any other Athosian for that matter."

"If that's the case, we can use it against 'em." Sheppard had finally sat down and was looking at the locket with a contemplative look.

Elizabeth seemed to understand what the Major was saying and turned to look at Harry. "Harry, you have been reading up on the Wraith. What can you tell us?"

Harry tilted his head to the side, mentally riffling through all the information he had found in the database about the enemy of the Ancients. "The Ancients, from what I've seen so far, aren't very good at keeping databases. There is little organisation, or it's not like any system I've seen. I've managed to find a large deal on the physiology of the Wraith, but I'm not a biologist, so I sent those files to Carson. I did manage to find a small collection of files about their language and culture." Harry paused, thinking about the scant information that the database had provided. "I've learnt all I can about their spoken language from the database. They can speak and have vocal cords, but they also communicate telepathically – they use the same ability to make people see 'shadows' and to forcibly read minds. They live in hive-like communities, controlled by a Queen."

"Would it be possible to subdue one and capture it alive?"

Harry shook his head. "As I said, I don't know a lot about medicine or biology. You need to talk to Carson to find out is that is possible."

Elizabeth looked at her hands for a moment. "Thank you Harry." She turned to Sheppard, who was sat opposite her. "Major, I want your team to plan a mission. We'll meet again in a few hours for the briefing."

* * *

><p>Harry leaned casually against the side of the balcony, watching as those below in the Gateroom checked and double-checked their equipment. He could see the nervous look on Rodney's face and couldn't help but feel sympathy. Rodney was a scientist, not a soldier, but life in this galaxy demanded more than ever from the Earth natives. They would have to toughen up or they wouldn't survive.<p>

The Gate shut down as the last marine made his way through, its ethereal blue light disappearing. Harry turned from his perch and wandered down the main staircase, nodding at the few marines on duty, who nodded back respectfully. Harry was about to cross the room and head down to his lab, when a loud and cheerful voice shouting his name carried across the room. Turning, Harry almost rolled his eyes as his three marine friends hurried towards him, huge grins plastered across their faces.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be on duty?"

"You can be such a buzzkill sometimes Harry." Nate shook his head mockingly, but couldn't erase his grin. "And we are technically on duty. But we have been put down for Jumper lessons right now. You know, because we have the gene."

"Yeah, and you are coming with us."

"Guys, I have work to do. I can't just abandon my lab to go on a joyride in a Jumper with you."

Dan slapped Harry on the back, pulling him towards the stairs. "I've already cleared it with Dr Weir. She seemed eager for you to learn all the offworld skills available."

"Of course she did." Harry shook his head, but allowed himself to be dragged up a floor to the Jumper bay. Elizabeth seemed determined to get Harry offworld.

"Come on guys." Nate bounced over to the back of an open Jumper, making a grin spread across Harry's face. He couldn't help it; the marines all looked like children with free rein in a candy shop. Harry entered the Jumper and saw a marine was powering up the main system.

"Hey Miller. Everything ready?" Dan slipped into the passenger seat and looked at the information being displayed eagerly.

"Yes, Sir." Harry saw the dark haired man look at him in confusion. "Sir? I didn't know that we were taking any civilians with us."

Dan looked over his shoulder. "Oh, that's just Harry. I've cleared it with Dr Weir."

Harry slipped past the marines and gently touched the console. Contact wasn't strictly necessary once the ship had been initialised, but Harry enjoyed the contact and the feeling of the connection with the technology. He accessed all the main systems in no time at all and opened the roof. Turning around, he saw Miller watching him with his eyebrows raised and surprise on his face.

"I've worked on the Jumper systems with Dr McKay and Dr Zelenka. I know how they work, I've just not had a chance to use them practically yet."

Harry moved back and let Miller seat himself in the driver's chair. Harry, Zack and Nate all moved to be behind the seats and watched as the Lieutenant flew the ship carefully out of the bay through the roof. Getting clearance from Control, the marine put his proverbial foot down and increased the speed of the Jumper tenfold. Harry could see on both the screen and out of the window that they were travelling incredibly fast, but he didn't feel anything. The inertial dampners really were something. Harry had appreciated Ancient engineering and technology many times since he had first got his hands on that music box, but this really was the pinnacle of their technology.

"Here you are Sir." Miller moved out of the driver's seat after slowing the Jumper down considerable and he was quickly replaced by Dan. Harry watched as Dan gripped the drive controls tightly, the marine's gaze firmly on the data being shown on the screen. Most of it was pictographic, but the occasional Ancient word would float onto the screen. Dr Jackson had conducted mandatory lessons for all members of the expedition (those that had been at Antarctica at least, a few late recruits hadn't been fortunate enough to have any lessons). It was during these lessons that the linguist had discovered how good at Ancient Harry was and he had enthusiastically monopolised any free time that Harry had when he wasn't jammed under a console. Harry's marine friends had all been to the sessions, but Harry had also taken the time to casually teach them as well. It was all laid back, like when they were at lunch or working out in the base gym, and Harry had found that they learnt better that way. They weren't geniuses with languages like Harry, but they were picking it up faster now that they were surrounded by the language. They would be fluent in Ancient in no time at all, if Harry had any say in it.

"This is so cool." Zack had taken Dan's place in the driver's seat and was speeding the Jumper up, pushing it to the go faster and faster. He performed a roll, causing the view out of the window to suddenly flip over.

"Hmmm, artificial gravity. Impressive." Harry leaned forward and took a long look out of the window. He was suitably impressed by the level of Ancient technology in the small ship. It was so far ahead of where Harry had always believed Muggles to be, that he sometimes couldn't believe he was actually on the Ancient City of Atlantis. He was convinced that he would wake up one day and be back in his apartment in DC, getting ready to go to work at the Pentagon.

"Harry, have a go." Nate grinned widely at Harry and nodded to towards the main controls. "It's amazing."

Harry nodded slightly and gracefully slipped into the vacated seat. He slid his hands into the control grips and held them lightly between his hands. Harry had spent years learning mental control from many different masters of the subject. They all had a different approach and it had taken Harry a long time to find the best way for him. Ancient technology, being based on a combination of the correct genes to activate it and then staunch mental control to make it do what you wanted, was easy for Harry to feel an affinity with. Touch wasn't strictly necessary for some things beyond activation, but Harry enjoyed having the closer contact with the technology.

Being connected with the Jumper was like nothing else Harry had experienced. The closest thing Harry could relate it to was flying a broomstick. The lightest of reactions was required to make the ship do what you wanted it, just like a broom. But the sense of control was so much more than a broomstick. The Jumper was controlled on intent and thought and the sense of connection was greater than with a broom. It was a strange feeling, having so much control over something without having to move out of the comfortable chair inside the Jumper.

Harry flipped the Jumper back around, so that wasn't upside down anymore and pulled it up in a steep climb. At the speed they were going, it only took a matter of minutes for the small ship to break through the atmosphere. Harry quickly established a stable orbit over the planet and leaned back in his chair, a grin on his face as he looked out of the window.

"Wow." Dan was leaning forward in his seat and Nate and Zack pushed forward until they could get a clear view out of the front viewing window. A distracted thought from Harry made the information and planetary telemetry screen disappear, allowing a non-obscured view out of the window.

Harry looked down at the planet as it passed underneath them as they floated in space. Harry knew, on an intellectual level, that he was an alien planet in another galaxy. But the planet itself was so Earth-like, with an ocean that could be any on Earth, that it was easy to forget that they were in different galaxy, lightyears from home. The City itself was their daily reminder about where exactly they were, it was so alien and advanced. But even as intrepid explorers of alien planets, being in space and seeing such a planet from far above was spectacular. Harry couldn't help but think about all the people he had lost in the War – not one of them had every imagined that a Wizard would be getting into space anytime soon. Hermione had been one of the pioneers of Muggle education in the Resistance, valuing knowledge for knowledge's sake. It was something the new Wizarding Nation, made up of Resistance members and their allies, embraced and it was driving a Revolution in their society.

Seeing the beautiful blue orb passing underneath them in silent elegance and glory was enough to make Harry's heartache with memories of his people and those he had lost. It also steeled his determination to make the most of this opportunity he had been given, and live his life as much as he could. Because he wasn't just living for himself – he was living for everyone he had lost as well. For the first time since the War, Harry was ready to move on with his life.

* * *

><p>"What does this one do?"<p>

Harry reached over and smacked the hand that was heading towards a small and innocuous device casually set on a lab table. Looking up with a small glare, Harry leaned back in his chair and observed the marine stood before him rubbing his hand.

"Harry. Did you have to smack me so hard?" Nate pouted and rubbed his hand.

"Yes, I did." Harry propped his feet up on the edge of his desk. "You should know not to touch things that you have no idea about. That could have turned you into a frog, or made you blind or changed you into a woman."

Chuckling came from the corner of the room, where Dan and Zack were sprawled on Harry's sofa eating sandwiches pilfered from the mess and chugging coffee. Harry leaned back further into his chair and couldn't help joining in as laughter replaced the chuckles when Nate scowled.

"Yeah, _Natalie, _we wouldn't want that to happen." Dan laughed harder, gripping his stomach. "Although, maybe you would suit heels and a purse."

"Shut up." Nate muttered and glowered as Harry almost choked with laughter at the mental image Dan was painting. He was laughing so hard with good humour, that he didn't see the looks exchanged by his three friends. They had known Harry a short while and they had all instantly clicked as friends, but they had never seen Harry so unguarded. They all knew that they saw a side of Harry that others on Atlantis, with a few exceptions, never saw. The Brit was so guarded that it was difficult to get any personal information out of him, but the three marines took it as a good sign that Harry was sharing more with them.

"So, how are you guys finding having the gene now that we are on Atlantis?"

Harry swivelled his chair around to face the three marines sat on his sofa and chairs in the corner of his lab/office. Even though one of them had the gene naturally, none of them had much cause to touch any Ancient technology when they were in Antarctica. Harry, as a tech and part of the science department of the Expedition, was surrounded by the Ancient technology at the Antarctica base and was used to it. The marines who had the gene, naturally or artificially, still found the technology a novelty.

The pout on Nate's face from being made fun of disappeared instantly, replaced by a bright smile. "It's amazing! I don't even mind when the scientists want me to be a human light switch and turn stuff on for them."

Harry smirked. The majority of the expedition didn't have the gene, so the science staff needed to go in search of someone with the gene when they found something that needed to be initialised or powered up by a person with Ancient ancestry. The science staff were all polite when they asked the marines to help them out and Harry knew that the marines didn't mind helping out when they could. There were a few that didn't have enough respect for the civilian portion of the Expedition, in Harry's opinion, but they weren't the norm among the soldiers.

Harry glanced at his watch. "I think I'm going to head to the mess and grab something to eat."

Zack heaved himself up into his feet. "I'll come with you."

Harry shook his head. "You guys have just eaten. You can't still be hungry."

Nate rolled his eyes and slapped Harry on the shoulder. "Harry, you know us. We can always fit second helpings in."

Dan slapped Harry's other shoulder, before heading out of the room. "Especially when the kitchen staff have made chocolate cake as a special treat."

Harry blinked for a moment, letting the marine's words sink in. He jogged to catch up with his friends, who were half way to the mess. "Really? Chocolate cake?"

Zack gave a laugh and turned to the other soldiers, who were grinning. "See? I told you that would get his attention."

Harry scowled. "So they aren't serving cake?"

"No, no. They are." Dan couldn't help grabbing Harry around his shoulders and ruffling his hair. The indignant look Harry was giving them all was just too funny. They knew how Harry was when it came to personal space and physical contact, but they had been getting closer to each other. They were all starting to think of each other as family – brothers really. Dan couldn't help treating Harry like the youngest brother of their group.

Harry stiffened for a split second, before forcing himself to relax. For the first time since the War, Harry was feeling as though he was creating a family for himself. These men were all good guys and Harry would be honoured to call them his brothers. It was time to start letting them in, but it would take time for Harry to tell them all about himself and his past. There was still so much that he couldn't tell them – the Magical Law in force across the entire community forbade Harry was telling them everything about himself unless it was a life or death situation.

With his new promise to himself to create a family for himself here at the forefront of his mind, Harry couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face as he watched the marines argue with each other about why Harry got the biggest piece of chocolate cake. They were still in a public place, and years of being taught etiquette had left an ingrained behaviour in him. Even though none of the others knew it, Harry was representing his entire people here and out in the galaxy. He was determined to act correctly and give the best impression of his race.

A tray quietly being set down opposite him caught Harry's attention. He looked up and saw a tired Carson had joined them. The Scot smiled as the marines happily greeted him and raised an eyebrow at Harry's large piece of cake. "I swear, Harry, you eat more sugar than most of the City put together."

Harry ignored the comment, and took another bite of his cake, an eyebrow raised at the Doctor. Carson shook his head. "Well, it doesn't seem to have done you any harm. You're fitter than all the other science staff, and most of the marines, and you do have a good and healthy diet except for the sweet tooth you have."

Harry washed down the last of his cake with a slug from his water bottle and shrugged at the Scottish man. "And don't forget about my faster than normal and highly efficient metabolism."

"Aye, there is that as well, lad."

Wizards were designed to use and manipulate all forms of energy. Evolution had made their metabolism and their entire system almost completely efficient. A very precise combination of genetics allowed Harry's people to mentally manipulate energy of different kinds and bend it to their will. Over the centuries, their skill with this ability had increased exponentially. However, their lack of social evolution meant that their population was isolated to a very small percentage of the entire human race.

"So, Carson, I heard that the mission was a success." Harry leaned forward in his chair. "Everyone come back ok?"

"Aye, lad. They all came back ok. And they have the prisoner."

Dan frowned as Harry tilted his head slightly, a neutral look on his face as he considered the physician's words. "What are you thinking Harry? I know that look – nothing good can come from it."

Harry leaned back, arranging an innocent look to be aimed at his friends. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Nate gave a snort. "You know exactly what we are talking about. You are too curious for your own good Harry."

Harry just shook his head and Dan suddenly turned serious. "Really Harry, what are you planning to do? Because you aren't going anywhere without us."

Harry sighed, but stood up. "Fine. I need to talk to Dr Weir, but meet me at the transporter near the brig."

Harry swiftly marched out of the mess, ignoring the questions about the brig and his plan thrown at his back by the soldiers and doctor sat at the table. He ducked around the many marines and scientists milling around the corridors as he made his way through the Tower towards the Control room. It was quiet, with only the techs working at the consoles and the Gateroom guard of marines keeping a vigilant eye on proceedings. Harry nodded to the two techs that he had worked extensively with at Antarctica, at the SGC and on Atlantis. Peter and Chuck both nodded back, before going back to monitoring the systems and Gate readings.

Harry crossed the small bridge from the Control room to Elizabeth's office and gently rapped his knuckles on the glass window next to the open door. Elizabeth looked up from the reports she was reading and smiled at the teen politely and patiently waiting in the doorway. She gestured for Harry to enter and watched as the dark-haired man seated himself in front of his desk.

"Harry, what can I do for you?"

Harry sat back in his chair and looked at the older woman for a few minutes, seemingly choosing his words carefully. "You will no doubt refuse my request at first. But I need you to think about it for a moment and see all the positives."

Elizabeth gave a small frown of confusion. "Harry, what are you talking about? You need to explain."

Harry took a deep breath, his face carefully blank and his voice soft but confident. "The Ancient database has a small section on the written and spoken language of the Wraith. Some of the scientists are starting to learn from it, but that will take time. Whilst the Wraith obviously speak the common language in the galaxy, it would be useful to use their own language and see what we can get out of them."

"Ok, I understand that part. Using the Wrath language can be very useful for us. The others will learn it with time. I'm still not sure what you are asking me for, Harry."

"I already know basic Wraith. I've been trawling the databases for information about them since we first encountered them. Know the enemy and all that." Harry eyed Elizabeth over the desk carefully. "And we currently have a live Wraith in a cell."

Harry allowed his words to sink in and saw the exact moment that Elizabeth realised exactly what his request was. "There is chance that I'm letting you into a room with a Wraith."

Harry sighed. "Elizabeth. We both know that there is no way that the Wraith is going to get out of the cell. The Ancient designed and built them incredibly well. I can guess that Major Sheppard has already spoken to him, but didn't manage to get anything out of him. I don't think I will either, but I've got to give it a go."

Harry saw Elizabeth's resolve to deny his request was crumbling and pushed forward with his argument. "The Ancients have a fair bit of information about their technology and fighting capabilities in the database, but only the bare amount of information about their culture and beliefs. I know that you will agree with me that it is important to know everything about an enemy – know how they think, live and what motivates them. The Ancients have very little information about the cultures of any of the people in this galaxy."

"That is true." Elizabeth voice was soft and her eyes locked with Harry's. "Any additional information would certainly be useful."

Harry pulled out his final ace card. "And I'll have the marines on duty guarding the Wraith there, as well as a few others that won't let me go on my own."

Elizabeth sighed. "Ok, fine. You have my permission. I may not like it, but I understand the need. Report to me later this afternoon with anything you find out and enter it into the database as well."

Harry rose from his seat, a small smile directed at the Expedition leader. "Thank you, Elizabeth. I'll see you later."

Harry was contemplating what he was going to say to the Wraith when he exited the transporter and can face to face with three soldiers in full gear and heavily armed. He saw his friends checking their guns and couldn't help shaking his head as he watched Dan tightening his tactical vest to get it fitting comfortably. The marines, finally finished with fussing with their kit, looked up and saw Harry observing them.

"What?" Nate clipped his P90 on and frowned defensively at Harry. "You think we couldn't work out why you wanted to come down here?"

"Or that we wouldn't arm ourselves up?" Zack grinned at the Brit. "Let's get this crazy show on the road eh?"

Dan headed down the corridor, shaking his head. "How did I end up with such crazy people as friends?"

Harry chuckled. "Lack of choice?"

Dan looked over his shoulder and saw Harry's wide grin. "Yeah, that must be it. There is no other explanation as to why I hand around with you people."

Harry forced his humour down as he slipped past the armed marines as the group reached the outer chamber of the brig. A few words with the posted guards, those at the outer- and inner-doorways and the ones watching the camera monitors, confirmed that Elizabeth had already radioed ahead and let them know that Harry and his escort would be coming down to talk to the prisoner.

"Good luck in there." One of the marines entered his password and opened the inner-door to the room holding the cell. "All he does is stare. It makes me nervous."

Harry blanked his face of all emotion and allowed his friends enter the room before him, knowing it would do no good to argue. They positioned themselves half in the shadows, one on each side of the cell except the one facing the door where Harry would enter. They appeared relaxed, but Harry knew that they would explode into action within split-seconds if there was even a hint of trouble. Harry squared his shoulders and calmly entered, the door hissing closed behind him.

The room was dimly lit, the lights mainly aimed at the cell and its occupant. The blue tinge of the metal caused an almost supernatural effect, which was appropriate seeing as the prisoner was a space vampire. The cell was square, with slats running horizontally and close enough together that no one human-sized would ever be able to fit between them. Not that it would make a difference if they did imprison a midget one day – the cell was also contained within its own shield. Shields were the Ancients' speciality it seemed.

The prisoner was tall. Very tall. It was the first thing that Harry noticed about him. He was wearing all black, making him look even more intimidating as it stood out from his white skin. Harry circled the cell slowly, taking in every detail of the alien. Reading descriptions in the database and in reports was one thing, but it didn't even begin to compare to the reality of seeing a Wraith in the flesh. The Wraith ignored Harry as he looked at its long hair, but he knew it was tracking his movements around the cell because he saw its yellow eyes flicker to him occasionally.

Harry came to a stop back at his starting point. Folding his hands together behind his back, he stood casually. The Wraith stared at him, but Harry said nothing and his gaze didn't waver. He wanted to see how long it would take for the Wraith to wonder why he was there. He was disappointed when it only took five minutes of a starring contest for the Wraith to glare and demand answers from him.

"I fail to see what your people think they will achieve by sending a child in here to question me." Feline-like yellow eyes glinted with malice.

Harry kept his tone blank, not wanting to give anything away. "I am not a child."

"I will tell you nothing, so your visit here had been useless. You will suffer greatly when my people come for me."

Harry had to work hard to keep himself from rolling his eyes at the Wraith. The strange and menacing voice held wrath and threat, but Harry had faced enemies before. He had been a leader in a War where people could kill with a thought and very little effort. He was a survivor and warrior and an alien locked in a secure cell certainly didn't scare him. Harry was just glad that his enemy this time wasn't too melodramatic – Death Eaters like theatrics too much, in Harry's opinion.

"I'm not here to interrogate you about your ships, or outposts or your weapons. I want to know about your culture and the society."

Harry didn't think that a Wraith's face was designed to allow for shock, but that hypothesis was proven wrong when surprise flashed across the alien features. It was gone almost as soon as it appeared, but Harry saw it. The feline eyes narrowed at him as he moved a step closer to the cell.

"You cannot trick me, human. Your words mean nothing."

Harry paused for a moment. The Wraith was clearly surprised by Harry's request to learn about Wraith culture, but obviously thought he was trying to trick it into giving away vital military information. Harry was only trying to get whatever he could from the alien. Any information could help them in their fight against the space vampires.

The Wraith was already surprised by Harry, so he decided to put it even further off balance. Harry was never more grateful that he could speak Parseltongue than now – the spoken language of the Wraith was surprisingly guttural and hissing. It would be murder on the vocal cords of a normal person. But Harry was far from normal.

"It is true." Harry kept his language simple and to the point. He only knew the basics of Wraith, but he thought he was progressing quite well. "I really do want to learn about your people. No tricks."

The shocked look was back on the Wraith's face, but this time it didn't disappear. Harry met the yellow gaze of the alien head-on and they held the same still position for a few minutes before the feline eyes narrowed considerably in concentration. Harry was wondering what the alien was doing for a few seconds before he felt it. Energy was reaching out towards Harry, emanating from the alien before him.

Harry was confused for a few minutes, wondering what was happening. Wizards could almost 'feel' each other – it felt as though they were figures of energy. Wizards were taught to reach out for energy and manipulate it to do what they wanted. Mind magic was a very specialised field, but all Wizards were born with a basic instinct to protect themselves from any mental invasion by another.

Harry remembered the notes in the database and from the mission reports. Wraith could make people see 'shadows', causing confusion and basically herding humans were they wanted them to make it easier to collect them all up with their darts. There wasn't much more information about the Wraith's psychic abilities, but Harry thought they could do considerably more than the Ancients ever discovered. Sheppard, in his report about the first rescue mission they went on, noted that the Wraith Queen seemed to be able to read minds.

Harry merely tilted his head to the side slightly, narrowed his eyes and mentally batted the invasion attempt away. The Wraith took a step back as though Harry had smacked him in the face, a silent snarl crossing his features. Another mental attack came at Harry, but he just pushed it away harder.

The Wraith didn't bother speaking Common (as Harry dubbed English in this Galaxy) as it snarled at Harry in the Wraith's native language. "What are you? No human can do these things!"

Harry kept his face blank and his tone neutral. "I have no idea what you are talking about." The only reply Harry got was an animalistic growl. Sighing, Harry turned from the Wraith, who was burning holes in Harry's back with his dark glare.

The soldiers silently followed Harry out of the cells and down the corridor, nodding to the guards as they passed. Not a word was said as they took the transporter to the living quarters. Harry sighed as he entered his room and slinked out to the balcony. He heard his friends removing their weapons and tactical vests and dumping them on the bed. They joined Harry sat at the edge of the balcony, leaning against the railings and dangling his legs over the end.

The silence was broken by Dan sighing. "It has been a long day."

Nate and Zack snorted and Harry shook his head. "It's not over yet though. I'm just taking a small break before I go and meet Dr Weir and tell her how it went."

The men sat for a few moments, enjoying the view as the sun moved towards the horizon, causing the light to glint off the ocean and gleam a thousand colours. Harry saw Nate shifting out of the corner of his eye and leaned back to fully look at him. Feeling Harry's bright emerald gaze on him, Nate stopped moving and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. I was trying to figure out a subtle way of asking how it went."

Zack snorted again. "Please, there is no need to be subtle. If you're not going to do it, I will." Zack's glinting eyes focused on the younger man. "So, did you get anything out of the Wraith?"

Harry sighed. "Not really. He was tighter than a clam."

"I gotta tell you Harry." Harry turned and saw Dan looking at him contemplatively. "It was kind of….unsettling, when you starting talking in Wraith."

Harry grinned at his friends. "Really? That's funny – tough marines scared by an alien language."

"Hey." All three marines gave indignant protests, causing Harry to break out in laughter. He relaxed forward, enjoying the short time with his friends as they skived off their duty for a few minutes. It was all go-go-go on Atlantis and Harry found himself savouring the very small number of quiet times, especially when he had good company. These were the new, good memories that Harry was building up for himself and he was creating a new life and family here.

* * *

><p>Harry leaned over the laptop, a small frown on his face as he minutely adjusted the bar at the bottom of the screen, his finger delicately using the track pad to make sure it was perfect. Smiling when he got it perfectly in position, Harry tapped a few buttons and looked up at the larger screen attached to the laptop. A large grin appeared on his face as the main title for tonight's film glowed brightly on the large screen. A cheer behind him had Harry grinning wider, shaking his head in exasperation.<p>

It was the first film night on Atlantis, and the sofas that the marines had painstakingly collected from around the city and dragged up many flights of stairs, were getting full up with both soldiers and scientists. Elizabeth had already arranged a cinema schedule back on Earth, based on the films and television programmes that Harry had brought with him on the gifted external hard-drive. The schedule was created by the good old-fashioned way of randomly choosing film names and random theme nights to fit the television series that were available. All off the shows and movies were available on the network, but most people would rather wait until cinema night. Half the fun of a movie was watching it with others.

Harry checked his watch and saw that it was the designated start time. He hit play and someone at the back of the room switched off the lights. The room went quiet, only the occasional mutter and crinkling of smuggled-in snacks breaking into the sounds of the movie. Harry slunk around the edge of the room, taking his seat at the back, where Nate, Zack and Dan were saving him a seat.

"Independence Day?" Dan muttered from his seat next to Harry. "Really Harry? Enjoy irony much?"

Harry gave a low chuckle. "Yeah, General O'Neill saw the movie schedule and insisted that this be the first film shown. He has a great sense of humour."

Dan was quiet for a few minutes as the others gave near-silent laughs, eyes trained on the screen. He muttered again, causing the others to lean closer. "The Gateteams have been arranged. They just need to train people for them. Major Sheppard saw me earlier and explained to me."

Harry shifted closer to the older man so he could hear him better. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. There's gonna be twelve teams. Teams one to four are primary exploration teams, teams five to eight are secondary teams that don't go out as much as the primary teams but still explore and teams nine to twelve are back-up teams that provide support and go back to planets for secondary exploration missions." Dan fell silent and watched the movie in quiet contemplation. Harry didn't think he was going to speak again, but was proven wrong when Dan's quiet voice broke through the loud movie sounds again. "There are only three teams so far – they are training everyone right now so they get offworld experience."

Nate, who was on the other side of Dan, slapped him on the shoulder. Ignoring the glares from the biologist in the row of seats in front of them that they sound caused, Nate grinned. "Going offworld would be awesome! How fun would that be? I wonder who is on the teams so far."

Dan nodded, a small smile on his lips. "Well, you're looking at one of them."

Harry's gaze snapped from the screen, where Will Smith was seeing the big-ass alien spaceship hovering in the sky for the first time. "Whoa, congratulations."

Dan's smile got wider. "Thanks. I have some offworld mission experience – I was posted at the Alpha site for a while before going back to the SGC. I only went on a few missions before I was assigned to the Atlantis expedition and was shipped to Antarctica."

Nate shrugged. "That's awesome. Zack was posted on the Apollo for a while and I was at the Beta site for a few months before going to McMurdo. But neither of us have ever been to another planet before coming to Atlantis."

Harry patted Dan's shoulder, leaning back into his seat to get comfortable. Now that they were settled into Atlantis, the real exploration was beginning and Harry couldn't wait for the adventure to start.


End file.
